The central focus of this article is on the moral dilemmas that social servants face when applying the law. These moral dilemmas result from the professional’s discretionary space. Exploratory qualitative research shows that, in order to solve these dilemmas, professionals in some public organisations try to find tailormade solutions. However, this sometimes leads to a more or less denying of the discretionary space at hand, or to the creation of more rules in an effort to close the discretionary space. The question is, are these approaches effective? The answer may very well turn out to be negative. This article shows that applying a rule always leaves the professional some discretionary space. It is precisely in this free space that moral issues come up. Social servants will attain a stronger stance regarding moral issues by focussing on the development of their own moral sensitivity, both individually and as an organisation, as well as by their increasing awareness of the moral standards held by themselves, their organisation, and society at large. A social servant’s job is not inserting coins in a jukebox. He must create the music himself by interpreting the rules in a given situation. Just as it takes a person to turn a musical score into music, so it takes a person to interpret the law in order to create justice. De morele dilemma’s van publieke professionals die voortkomen uit het toepassen van de wet, vormen het voornaamste onderwerp van dit artikel. Deze morele dilemma’s ontstaan vanuit de discretionaire ruimte van professionals. Verkennend kwalitatief onderzoek laat zien dat in sommige publieke organisaties professionals deze dilemma’s proberen op te lossen door maatwerk te leveren. In de praktijk leidt dit soms echter tot het min of meer negeren van de discretionaire ruimte, of het dichttimmeren van de discretionaire ruimte door middel van meer regels en richtlijnen. Het is de vraag of een van deze strategieën effectief is. Het antwoord hierop is waarschijnlijk ontkennend. Dit artikel laat zien dat het toepassen van een regel altijd discretionaire ruimte laat voor de professional. Juist in deze vrije ruimte spelen morele kwesties. Publieke professionals kunnen moreel gesterkt worden door de ontwikkeling van morele gevoeligheid, individueel en als organisatie, en door een groeiend bewustzijn van de morele standaarden die de samenleving en zijzelf in hun organisatie handhaven. De publieke professional kan niet als bij een jukebox door een druk op de knop de machine zijn werk laten doen. De regels en de situatie interpreterend zal hij zelf muziek moeten maken. Zoals er mensen nodig zijn om van notenschrift muziek te maken, zo kunnen alleen mensen van wet- en regelgeving in een unieke situatie recht en rechtvaardigheid maken.
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This study reports on what 13 teacher educators going through a procedure to become registered as a teacher educator in 2011–2012 learned, what goals they formulated for their further professional development and what activities they planned to achieve these goals. The methods used in this study are mainly the same as were used at the time the first cohort went through the registration procedure in 2002. The 2012 cohort participated in a supportive programme, whereas the 2002 cohort did not. This enables a comparison of the results of both studies and thus some insight into the possible benefits of integrating a registration procedure with a supportive programme for the professional development of teacher educators.
In dit artikel wordt de nieuwe rol van de sociale professional beschreven in relatie tot het samenwerken met vrijwilligers. Deze samenwerking is belangrijker geworden, vanwege de ingrijpende beleidswijziging van de overheid, die nu uitgaat van (meer) vrijwillige inzet op allerlei gebieden van zorg en welzijn. Als eerste wordt de maatschappelijke context besproken en de veranderende verhouding tussen de sociale professional en de vrijwilliger. Daarna wordt ingezoomd op de voorwaarden voor een goede samenwerking en de verantwoordelijkheden die de sociale professional in de zorg heeft om het werken met vrijwilligers tot een succes te maken.
The denim industry faces many complex sustainability challenges and has been especially criticized for its polluting and hazardous production practices. Reducing resource use of water, chemicals and energy and changing denim production practices calls for collaboration between various stakeholders, including competing denim brands. There is great benefit in combining denim brands’ resources and knowledge so that commonly defined standards and benchmarks are developed and realized on a scale that matters. Collaboration however, and especially between competitors, is highly complex and prone to fail. This project brings leading denim brands together to collectively take initial steps towards improving the ecological sustainability impact of denim production, particularly by establishing measurements, benchmarks and standards for resource use (e.g. chemicals, water, energy) and creating best practices for effective collaboration. The central research question of our project is: How do denim brands effectively collaborate together to create common, industry standards on resource use and benchmarks for improved ecological sustainability in denim production? To answer this question, we will use a mixed-method, action research approach. The project’s research setting is the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area (MRA), which has a strong denim cluster and is home to many international denim brands and start-ups.
On a yearly basis 120 million kg of spent coffee ground (SCG) is disposed as waste. Two partners in the project have the intension to refine the valuable compounds from this coffee residue. One of these compounds is the group of melanoidins. It is proven that these natural polymers, with polyphenols incorporated, can be applied as colourant to textiles. These colourant compounds can be extracted from the SCG. In this project an industrial feasible dye recipe for SCG extract to cotton will be developed. This twostep dye method consists of a mordanting step and a colour uptake step. Both will be optimised to colour intensity and light and wash fastness. Parameters as cycle time and energy and water consumption, will be take into account to make the dye recipe applicable for industrial standards. Chemical analysis of mordant compounds (tannins) and colourants (polyphenols) will be carried out to quantify and qualify the uptake by cotton. With the results of this project, the partners will be able to support their customers of the SCG extract with a scientific based advise about the application as a textile dye to ensure a solid market acceptance of SCG extract. With the SCG extract as a professional biobased colorant in the market, companies in textile industry will have a wider choice in using environmental friendly products. At the end, this will lead to complete biodegradable products for consumers.
Collaborative networks for sustainability are emerging rapidly to address urgent societal challenges. By bringing together organizations with different knowledge bases, resources and capabilities, collaborative networks enhance information exchange, knowledge sharing and learning opportunities to address these complex problems that cannot be solved by organizations individually. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the apparel sector, where examples of collaborative networks for sustainability are plenty, for example Sustainable Apparel Coalition, Zero Discharge Hazardous Chemicals, and the Fair Wear Foundation. Companies like C&A and H&M but also smaller players join these networks to take their social responsibility. Collaborative networks are unlike traditional forms of organizations; they are loosely structured collectives of different, often competing organizations, with dynamic membership and usually lack legal status. However, they do not emerge or organize on their own; they need network orchestrators who manage the network in terms of activities and participants. But network orchestrators face many challenges. They have to balance the interests of diverse companies and deal with tensions that often arise between them, like sharing their innovative knowledge. Orchestrators also have to “sell” the value of the network to potential new participants, who make decisions about which networks to join based on the benefits they expect to get from participating. Network orchestrators often do not know the best way to maintain engagement, commitment and enthusiasm or how to ensure knowledge and resource sharing, especially when competitors are involved. Furthermore, collaborative networks receive funding from grants or subsidies, creating financial uncertainty about its continuity. Raising financing from the private sector is difficult and network orchestrators compete more and more for resources. When networks dissolve or dysfunction (due to a lack of value creation and capture for participants, a lack of financing or a non-functioning business model), the collective value that has been created and accrued over time may be lost. This is problematic given that industrial transformations towards sustainability take many years and durable organizational forms are required to ensure ongoing support for this change. Network orchestration is a new profession. There are no guidelines, handbooks or good practices for how to perform this role, nor is there professional education or a professional association that represents network orchestrators. This is urgently needed as network orchestrators struggle with their role in governing networks so that they create and capture value for participants and ultimately ensure better network performance and survival. This project aims to foster the professionalization of the network orchestrator role by: (a) generating knowledge, developing and testing collaborative network governance models, facilitation tools and collaborative business modeling tools to enable network orchestrators to improve the performance of collaborative networks in terms of collective value creation (network level) and private value capture (network participant level) (b) organizing platform activities for network orchestrators to exchange ideas, best practices and learn from each other, thereby facilitating the formation of a professional identity, standards and community of network orchestrators.
