Mr Chris Carter (UNL)
Dr Steve Conway (Aston)
Mr Dave Crowther (Aston)
Dr Anne-Marie Greene (UNL/ Aston)
Professor Margaret Grieco (UNL)
Mr Len Holmes (UNL)
Dr Dian-Marie Hosking (Aston)
Dr Steve Little (Open University)
 

This is the present core of our membership, however, we are using this website to put out an open call for new virtual members. Physical workshop places for this year's working meeting in Ithaca, New York State, have all been taken - virtual places are still open. You may join as a virtual member of this year's meeting by one or more of three methods:

• send an e-mail to the convenor, Len Holmes


• sign our Guestbook, at the end of this home page


• send a message to the Message Board, also at the end of this home page

Welcome to colleagues who join us as 'virtual voyagers' on our electronic odyssey

Bill Slack, Aston Tele-Projects ( kanehbosm@hotmail.com )
Professor Stewart Clegg, Director, Collaboration Research Group, University of Technology, Sydney
( http://www.bus.uts.edu.au/mgt/crg )
Pascale de Berranger, Manchester Metropolitan University ( p.berranger@mmu.ac.uk )
Miriam Green, Senior Lecturer, Organisation Studies, University of North London ( m.green@unl.ac.uk )
Jeff Turner, Research Fellow, Department of Planning, Manchester University ( http://www.art.man.ac.uk/transres/ )

At this year's workshop, the core members will each be presenting work-in-progress within the area of Relational Skill and Electronic Communication for discussion by the rest of the Working Group. These papers will be available on-line and comment from interested e-colleagues can be directed to the author of each of the papers through their respective e-mail address.

For the first 5 days of the meeting, core members will make site visits to key skill locations in upstate New York. In particular, site visits will be undertaken to vineyards and the glass production facilities. Currently, Steve Little, Len Holmes and Margaret Grieco are engaged in a comparison of winemaking skills in South Africa and upstate New York, with a focus on changing technology and social transformation.

6^th August - Len Holmes (UNL): Len will discuss three key areas of Relational Skill:

• Ethnic identity and management development (joint paper with Gilbert Robinson)
  ( http://www.re-skill/papers/mbm.htm );
• Skill transference, social transformation and the wine industry of South Africa - New Beginnings, a valuable vintage;
• On-line learning - skills, the graduate identity, and the transformation of the Higher Education sector ( http://www.re-skill/grads/grademp.htm ).

6^th August - Anne-Marie Greene (UNL/ Aston): Anne-Marie will discuss three key areas of Relational Skill:

• Workforce identity and the globalisation of the lock industry.
  
• Gender identity and the technologising of skill.
  
• Industrial relations and the electronic workspace.

7^th August - Steve Little (Open University): Steve will invite discussion on his manuscript:

• Design and Determination: the Role of Information Technology in Redressing Regional Inequities and the Development Process (Ashgate Press).

7^th August - Dian-Marie Hosking (Aston): Dian-Marie will discuss two key areas of Relational Skill:

• Local Economic Time Transfer Systems and the maintenance of low-income skill definitions: the Ithaca Experiment;
• Gender, social relations and the construction of professional identity: the experience of female managers


Background papers:
Let's not talk about it for a change (http://www.oocities.org/dian_marie_hosking/PdfFiles/humsystem.pdf)
Ecology in mind, mindful practices ( http://www.oocities.org/dian_marie_hosking/Changeworks/ecologyinmind.pdf)
Social constructionism: some possibilities for leadership and leadership training

8^th August - Steve Conway (Aston): Steve will discuss recent developments in his long-standing research into:

• The relationship between social networks and organisational performance;
• Informal boundary spanning links and networks in successful technological innovation.

8^th August - Chris Carter (UNL): Chris will discuss:

• The impact of new technology on definitions of social competence
  ( http://www.unl.ac.uk/developmentmgt/working/wheels.htm )
• New locations of knowledge keeping ( http://homepages.unl.ac.uk/~carterc/know.htm )

9^th August - Dave Crowther (Aston): Dave will discuss:

• New technology, accounting practice, and the privatisation of the workforce.
• Relational accounting: skill inventories and cash flows.

( http://staff.abs.aston.ac.uk/deac/vbm2.htm )
( http://staff.abs.aston.ac.uk/deac/orgnc.htm )
( http://staff.abs.aston.ac.uk/deac/ecobk7.htm )

9^th August - Margaret Grieco (UNL): Margaret will discuss two key areas of Relational Skill:

• Social synchronisation, technical transparency and effective bargaining (http://legacy.unl.ac.uk/relational/papers/malaysia.htm );
• Dismantling colonial definitions: e-commerce and economic identity in the developing world (http://legacy.unl.ac.uk/relational/papers/bitworld.htm ), (http://www.unl.ac.uk/developmentmgt/moneygor/micro.htm )

Core members will be undertaking joint writing, revision of existing manuscripts, joint editorial sessions on a number of projects. Virtual contributions to any of these exercises will receive proper attribution.

Relational approaches to organisation, leadership and change
Knowledge Management
Relational Skill & Learning
Worker Identity and Trade Union Organisation
New Perspectives on Accounting and Corporate Performance
NWAlbion (Steve Little)
Development Management
Asia Pacific Researchers in Organisation Studies, Conference 2000

Ithaca, upstate New York, is not to be confused with the island kingdom of Odysseus, off the west coast of mainland Greece. It is, however, the home of our own electronic odyssey.
 

From Homer's Odyssey:   Aegyptius, a man bent double with age, and of infinite experience, was the first to speak ... "Men of Ithaca," he said, "hear my words. From the day Ulysses left us there has been no meeting of our councillors until now; who then can it be, whether old or young, that finds it so necessary to convene us? Has he got wind of some host approaching, and does he wish to warn us, or would he speak upon some other matter of public moment?"