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Mike Cushman

London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Management, Department Member

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Fundação Getulio Vargas Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo

University of Southern California

University of Rhode Island

Güzin Mazman Akar

Hacettepe University

Massimiliano M. Schiraldi

"Tor Vergata" University of Rome

University of Trento

Assoc Prof Dr Dodik Siswantoro

University of Indonesia

The University of Sheffield

Leonidas Cheliotis

London School of Economics and Political Science

Alan Chamberlain

University of Nottingham

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Papers by Mike Cushman

Compliance, Transformation or Resistance in the New Austerity? Is there space for independent action by English voluntary organisations under the Coalition Government?

In: The 8th international conference in crtitical management studies ; 10 Jul 2013-12 Aug 2013; The University of Manchester. Manchester, United Kingdom: The University of Manchester Library; 2013., Jul 10, 2013

This paper considers implications for the English voluntary sector of recent shifts in the terms ... more This paper considers implications for the English voluntary sector of recent shifts in the terms of engagement with the state following rapid political and policy changes under the UK Coalition government. We explore how ideas of what constitutes the voluntary sector are being reconstructed in policy and practical settings, examining processes contributing to re-shaping the voluntary sector’s conception of itself; its beliefs about appropriate organisational arrangements; and its understanding of the limits of legitimate activities and aspirations. While the private sector has gained a greater prominence in new arrangements, we argue that the state’s role is integral to the construction of these changes. They are changes which modify the sector’s ability to maintain the privileged role it arguably enjoyed under New Labour as an autonomous and influential participant able to act simultaneously within and against the state. The paper concludes with a discussion of the extent to which accommodating recent changes is necessary to organisational survival and asks what spaces exist for independent voluntary sector activity and resistance.

This article appeared in Journal of Social Policy 44 (3) pp.463-485

Complying, transforming or resisting in the new austerity? Realigning social welfare and independ... more

A History of Ilea Outreach Work and Its Precursors

Originally presented at Coordination and Cooperation across Organisational Boundaries, 20-21

Facilitating collaboration across organisational boundaries: an exploratory study using problem s... more

Penceil Paper 1 St Martin's Estate - an Area Profile

Penceil Paper 1 St Martin's Estate - an Area Profile

The Great Jewel Robbery

Review of the fate of the Inner London Education Authority Adult Education Service after it was d... more Review of the fate of the Inner London Education Authority Adult Education Service after it was devolved to the 12 inner Loddon boroughs after the abolition of the ILEA in 1990. The paper is an attempt to find out what has happened to the service after: • the abolition of ILEA with the passing of the Education Reform Act (ERA) ; • the setting up the Further Education Funding Council (FEFC) and the incorporation of colleges following the Further and Higher Education Act in 1992 (FHE Act); and • the reduction in Government funding for all services in inner London by a succession of restrictive revenue support grant (RSG) allocations and cut backs in programmes such as Urban Programme and Section 11 and their successors. This report was commissioned by the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (NATFHE)

Non-users of computers in south London: their experiences and aspirations for use

The digital divide is an issue within developed economies as well as between developed and less-d... more The digital divide is an issue within developed economies as well as between developed and less-developed countries. If people are to be able to play a full part in societies mediated through electronic communication we need to understand and address barriers to access, in terms of skills and dispositions that people require to exploit ICT, and motivations for use, rather than focus on physical access. Research undertaken as part of the Penceil Project 1 describes the attitudes of non-users of computers, their perceptions of technologies and the uses they might make of it. The research was undertaken on a deprived London housing estate amongst an ethnically and linguistically diverse community. The research disclosed widespread anxieties about ICT and a range of aspirations for gaining a competence in its use that is far wider than the conventional employment focussed curricula. While many respondents wished to improve their employment chances through ICT competency they also wanted to use ICT for wider purposes; maintaining contact with countries of birth and disperse family networks, supporting children's education and internet shopping. Respondents described computers as threatening and different from other cognate technologies, which they often skilfully interacted with (e.g. mobile phones, ATMs, VCRs). This indicates a need for a curriculum which improves understanding of how IT operates as well as competent usage. Many respondents expressed a general concern that the world, based on IT, is moving past them, yet they did not perceive many specific forms of exclusion beyond limited job opportunities, but anticipated growing difficulties.

Problem structuring methods for cross-organizational learning

Complying, Transforming or Resisting in the New Austerity? Realigning Social Welfare and Independent Action among English Voluntary Organisations

Journal of Social Policy, 2014

This paper considers implications for the English voluntary sector of recent shifts in the terms ... more This paper considers implications for the English voluntary sector of recent shifts in the terms of engagement with the state following rapid political and policy changes under the UK Coalition government. It explores how ideas of what constitutes the voluntary sector are being reconstructed in policy and practical settings, examining processes contributing to re-shaping the voluntary sector's conception of itself and beliefs about legitimate activities and aspirations. It draws on theories of institutional isomorphism and governmentality to explore these changes which appear to be modifying and restricting the voluntary sector's role in social welfare, limiting its influence and its ability to act simultaneously within and against the state. The paper argues the integral role of the state in recasting the roles of different sectors but also discusses the extent to which voluntary sector compliance is necessary to ensure organisational survival, asking what spaces exist for ...

A multi-level approach to understanding the impact of cyber crime on the financial sector

Computers & Security, 2014

This paper puts forward a multi-level model, based on system dynamics methodology, to understand ... more This paper puts forward a multi-level model, based on system dynamics methodology, to understand the impact of cyber crime on the financial sector. Consistent with recent findings, our results show that strong dynamic relationships, amongst tangible and intangible factors, affect cyber crime cost and occur at different levels of society and value network. Specifically, shifts in financial companies' strategic priorities, having the protection of customer trust and loyalty as a key objective, together with considerations related to market positioning vis-à-vis competitors are important factors in determining the cost of cyber crime. Most of these costs are not driven by the number of cyber crime incidents experienced by financial companies but rather by the way financial companies choose to go about in protecting their business interests and market positioning in the presence of cyber crime. Financial companies' strategic behaviour as response to cyber crime, especially in regard to over-spending on defence measures and chronic under-reporting, has also an important consequence at overall sector and society levels, potentially driving the cost of cyber crime even further upwards. Unwanted consequences, such as weak policing, weak international frameworks for tackling cyber attacks and increases in the jurisdictional arbitrage opportunities for cyber criminals can all increase the cost of cyber crime, while inhibiting integrated and effective measures to address the problem.

From the Third Sector to the Big Society: How Changing UK Government Policies Have Eroded Third Sector Trust

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 2012

This paper draws on concepts of trust to analyse recent policies affecting public/third sector re... more This paper draws on concepts of trust to analyse recent policies affecting public/third sector relationships, examining the parallel policy strands of competition, 'command and control' mechanisms and the community turn in shaping recent cultures of relationships. The paper draws on examples from two empirical studies in English inner-city areas to explore ways in which power and regulatory frameworks exerted through dominant organisational cultures and arrangements undermine the independent approaches to communication and action, necessary to develop innovative work and organisational learning within and across sectors. State bodies have behaved as though trust in their actions is a given, while increasingly shifting responsibilities for service delivery and risks of failure to others. Drawing on our research, we argue that the increase in market cultures and regulatory frameworks have damaged trust in cross-sector relationships, promoting divisive interests and riskaverse behaviours, restricting the autonomy, innovation and community action presumed in the Big Society agenda. We conclude by highlighting issues that need to be addressed to ensure the development of collaboration with community-based providers in the future including a focus on the processes and relational spaces which will enable positive alternatives.

Penceil Paper 7

This paper describes findings from the Penceil Project which aims to explore the experiences of n... more This paper describes findings from the Penceil Project which aims to explore the experiences of non and minimal users of ICTs, how non-use affects their inclusion or exclusion from society and how they can learn to use ICTs to meet their personal goals. The paper considers the applicability of the Technology Adoption Model (TAM) to understanding the experiences of this group of people. By looking at theories of social exclusion and the project research findings to date the paper argues that TAM: is limited in the range of ...

Learning from Partners in the Construction Industry: A Feedback Approach to Cross-Organizational Learning

… Conference in Multi- …, 2001

Learning from Partners in the Construction Industry: A Feedback Approach to Cross-Organizational ... more

E-Government, the Citizen and Equity

by Maddalena Sorrentino and Mike Cushman

Trust within and between Organizations : Trust within and Between Organizations in the Third Sector and Public Sector Challenges to trust in a changing Third Sector

Issues of trust in public-third sector relationships and those between small third sector organis... more Issues of trust in public-third sector relationships and those between small third sector organisations have had limited exploration in research to date. A small but growing literature has considered the effects of changes in public services on third sector agencies, highlighting the increased emphasis on competitive allocation of funding, regulatory and performance frameworks, and consequent shifts in inter-sectoral boundaries. As pressures on public sector spending and competition for funding grow, there is also a shifting dynamic between ‘old’ and ‘new’ values, as the distinctive character of third sector agencies (Kendall and Knapp, 1996) gives way to activities which have acquired legitimacy through dominant managerial cultures. Consequently, trust which formerly underpinned relationships between public and third sector agencies is being displaced by formalised arrangements which manage meanings and communications, normalising an asymmetry of relationships, also affecting trust...

Creating knowledge for sustainability: using SSM for describing knowledge environments and conceptualising technological interventions

This paper proposes a sociology of knowledge approach as a basis for understanding the potential ... more This paper proposes a sociology of knowledge approach as a basis for understanding the potential of knowledge management for a complex inter-organisational domain– the UK construction industry–with a specific aim of increasing the sustainability of the processes and products of the industry. To this end, soft systems methodology is introduced as a method of conceptualising the industry’s knowledge environment and moving towards technological interventions which enable a move towards sustainability in construction practice.

Understanding sustainability as knowledge practice

The research reported here grows out of the concern and pressures felt by the construction sector... more The research reported here grows out of the concern and pressures felt by the construction sector as it tries to respond to a complex and intensifying sustainability agenda. These pressures are seen by the industry itself as implying a need for new knowledge, new work practices and new ways managing knowledge. In the construction industry, sustainability is still seen as a novel and contestable concept, with no settled or focused understanding of what it means, the drivers that propel it, the bounds of its operationalization or the locus of its practice (Kibert, 1999). A sustainability agenda may be drawn very narrowly, as say low energy consumption, or it may go beyond, to consideration of environmental management and audit systems, or yet wider still to ecological sustainability, economic viability and social acceptability (Spencer-Cooke, 1998). At whatever level this is addressed (and even if these levels are not agreed), this produces new knowledge challenges for construction pr...

Panel: e-government, the citizen and equity; e-service delivery and the non-user

... Improved telephone access Government aim (Cabinet Office 1999) The information age should i... more

Aylesbury revisited: outreach in the 1980s

Compliance, Transformation or Resistance in the New Austerity? Is there space for independent action by English voluntary organisations under the Coalition Government?

In: The 8th international conference in crtitical management studies ; 10 Jul 2013-12 Aug 2013; The University of Manchester. Manchester, United Kingdom: The University of Manchester Library; 2013., Jul 10, 2013

This paper considers implications for the English voluntary sector of recent shifts in the terms ... more This paper considers implications for the English voluntary sector of recent shifts in the terms of engagement with the state following rapid political and policy changes under the UK Coalition government. We explore how ideas of what constitutes the voluntary sector are being reconstructed in policy and practical settings, examining processes contributing to re-shaping the voluntary sector’s conception of itself; its beliefs about appropriate organisational arrangements; and its understanding of the limits of legitimate activities and aspirations. While the private sector has gained a greater prominence in new arrangements, we argue that the state’s role is integral to the construction of these changes. They are changes which modify the sector’s ability to maintain the privileged role it arguably enjoyed under New Labour as an autonomous and influential participant able to act simultaneously within and against the state. The paper concludes with a discussion of the extent to which accommodating recent changes is necessary to organisational survival and asks what spaces exist for independent voluntary sector activity and resistance.

This article appeared in Journal of Social Policy 44 (3) pp.463-485

Complying, transforming or resisting in the new austerity? Realigning social welfare and independ... more

A History of Ilea Outreach Work and Its Precursors

Originally presented at Coordination and Cooperation across Organisational Boundaries, 20-21

Facilitating collaboration across organisational boundaries: an exploratory study using problem s... more

Penceil Paper 1 St Martin's Estate - an Area Profile

Penceil Paper 1 St Martin's Estate - an Area Profile

The Great Jewel Robbery

Review of the fate of the Inner London Education Authority Adult Education Service after it was d... more Review of the fate of the Inner London Education Authority Adult Education Service after it was devolved to the 12 inner Loddon boroughs after the abolition of the ILEA in 1990. The paper is an attempt to find out what has happened to the service after: • the abolition of ILEA with the passing of the Education Reform Act (ERA) ; • the setting up the Further Education Funding Council (FEFC) and the incorporation of colleges following the Further and Higher Education Act in 1992 (FHE Act); and • the reduction in Government funding for all services in inner London by a succession of restrictive revenue support grant (RSG) allocations and cut backs in programmes such as Urban Programme and Section 11 and their successors. This report was commissioned by the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (NATFHE)

Non-users of computers in south London: their experiences and aspirations for use

The digital divide is an issue within developed economies as well as between developed and less-d... more The digital divide is an issue within developed economies as well as between developed and less-developed countries. If people are to be able to play a full part in societies mediated through electronic communication we need to understand and address barriers to access, in terms of skills and dispositions that people require to exploit ICT, and motivations for use, rather than focus on physical access. Research undertaken as part of the Penceil Project 1 describes the attitudes of non-users of computers, their perceptions of technologies and the uses they might make of it. The research was undertaken on a deprived London housing estate amongst an ethnically and linguistically diverse community. The research disclosed widespread anxieties about ICT and a range of aspirations for gaining a competence in its use that is far wider than the conventional employment focussed curricula. While many respondents wished to improve their employment chances through ICT competency they also wanted to use ICT for wider purposes; maintaining contact with countries of birth and disperse family networks, supporting children's education and internet shopping. Respondents described computers as threatening and different from other cognate technologies, which they often skilfully interacted with (e.g. mobile phones, ATMs, VCRs). This indicates a need for a curriculum which improves understanding of how IT operates as well as competent usage. Many respondents expressed a general concern that the world, based on IT, is moving past them, yet they did not perceive many specific forms of exclusion beyond limited job opportunities, but anticipated growing difficulties.

Problem structuring methods for cross-organizational learning

Complying, Transforming or Resisting in the New Austerity? Realigning Social Welfare and Independent Action among English Voluntary Organisations

Journal of Social Policy, 2014

This paper considers implications for the English voluntary sector of recent shifts in the terms ... more This paper considers implications for the English voluntary sector of recent shifts in the terms of engagement with the state following rapid political and policy changes under the UK Coalition government. It explores how ideas of what constitutes the voluntary sector are being reconstructed in policy and practical settings, examining processes contributing to re-shaping the voluntary sector's conception of itself and beliefs about legitimate activities and aspirations. It draws on theories of institutional isomorphism and governmentality to explore these changes which appear to be modifying and restricting the voluntary sector's role in social welfare, limiting its influence and its ability to act simultaneously within and against the state. The paper argues the integral role of the state in recasting the roles of different sectors but also discusses the extent to which voluntary sector compliance is necessary to ensure organisational survival, asking what spaces exist for ...

A multi-level approach to understanding the impact of cyber crime on the financial sector

Computers & Security, 2014

This paper puts forward a multi-level model, based on system dynamics methodology, to understand ... more This paper puts forward a multi-level model, based on system dynamics methodology, to understand the impact of cyber crime on the financial sector. Consistent with recent findings, our results show that strong dynamic relationships, amongst tangible and intangible factors, affect cyber crime cost and occur at different levels of society and value network. Specifically, shifts in financial companies' strategic priorities, having the protection of customer trust and loyalty as a key objective, together with considerations related to market positioning vis-à-vis competitors are important factors in determining the cost of cyber crime. Most of these costs are not driven by the number of cyber crime incidents experienced by financial companies but rather by the way financial companies choose to go about in protecting their business interests and market positioning in the presence of cyber crime. Financial companies' strategic behaviour as response to cyber crime, especially in regard to over-spending on defence measures and chronic under-reporting, has also an important consequence at overall sector and society levels, potentially driving the cost of cyber crime even further upwards. Unwanted consequences, such as weak policing, weak international frameworks for tackling cyber attacks and increases in the jurisdictional arbitrage opportunities for cyber criminals can all increase the cost of cyber crime, while inhibiting integrated and effective measures to address the problem.

From the Third Sector to the Big Society: How Changing UK Government Policies Have Eroded Third Sector Trust

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 2012

This paper draws on concepts of trust to analyse recent policies affecting public/third sector re... more This paper draws on concepts of trust to analyse recent policies affecting public/third sector relationships, examining the parallel policy strands of competition, 'command and control' mechanisms and the community turn in shaping recent cultures of relationships. The paper draws on examples from two empirical studies in English inner-city areas to explore ways in which power and regulatory frameworks exerted through dominant organisational cultures and arrangements undermine the independent approaches to communication and action, necessary to develop innovative work and organisational learning within and across sectors. State bodies have behaved as though trust in their actions is a given, while increasingly shifting responsibilities for service delivery and risks of failure to others. Drawing on our research, we argue that the increase in market cultures and regulatory frameworks have damaged trust in cross-sector relationships, promoting divisive interests and riskaverse behaviours, restricting the autonomy, innovation and community action presumed in the Big Society agenda. We conclude by highlighting issues that need to be addressed to ensure the development of collaboration with community-based providers in the future including a focus on the processes and relational spaces which will enable positive alternatives.

Penceil Paper 7

This paper describes findings from the Penceil Project which aims to explore the experiences of n... more This paper describes findings from the Penceil Project which aims to explore the experiences of non and minimal users of ICTs, how non-use affects their inclusion or exclusion from society and how they can learn to use ICTs to meet their personal goals. The paper considers the applicability of the Technology Adoption Model (TAM) to understanding the experiences of this group of people. By looking at theories of social exclusion and the project research findings to date the paper argues that TAM: is limited in the range of ...

Learning from Partners in the Construction Industry: A Feedback Approach to Cross-Organizational Learning

… Conference in Multi- …, 2001

Learning from Partners in the Construction Industry: A Feedback Approach to Cross-Organizational ... more

E-Government, the Citizen and Equity

by Maddalena Sorrentino and Mike Cushman

Trust within and between Organizations : Trust within and Between Organizations in the Third Sector and Public Sector Challenges to trust in a changing Third Sector

Issues of trust in public-third sector relationships and those between small third sector organis... more Issues of trust in public-third sector relationships and those between small third sector organisations have had limited exploration in research to date. A small but growing literature has considered the effects of changes in public services on third sector agencies, highlighting the increased emphasis on competitive allocation of funding, regulatory and performance frameworks, and consequent shifts in inter-sectoral boundaries. As pressures on public sector spending and competition for funding grow, there is also a shifting dynamic between ‘old’ and ‘new’ values, as the distinctive character of third sector agencies (Kendall and Knapp, 1996) gives way to activities which have acquired legitimacy through dominant managerial cultures. Consequently, trust which formerly underpinned relationships between public and third sector agencies is being displaced by formalised arrangements which manage meanings and communications, normalising an asymmetry of relationships, also affecting trust...

Creating knowledge for sustainability: using SSM for describing knowledge environments and conceptualising technological interventions

This paper proposes a sociology of knowledge approach as a basis for understanding the potential ... more This paper proposes a sociology of knowledge approach as a basis for understanding the potential of knowledge management for a complex inter-organisational domain– the UK construction industry–with a specific aim of increasing the sustainability of the processes and products of the industry. To this end, soft systems methodology is introduced as a method of conceptualising the industry’s knowledge environment and moving towards technological interventions which enable a move towards sustainability in construction practice.

Understanding sustainability as knowledge practice

The research reported here grows out of the concern and pressures felt by the construction sector... more The research reported here grows out of the concern and pressures felt by the construction sector as it tries to respond to a complex and intensifying sustainability agenda. These pressures are seen by the industry itself as implying a need for new knowledge, new work practices and new ways managing knowledge. In the construction industry, sustainability is still seen as a novel and contestable concept, with no settled or focused understanding of what it means, the drivers that propel it, the bounds of its operationalization or the locus of its practice (Kibert, 1999). A sustainability agenda may be drawn very narrowly, as say low energy consumption, or it may go beyond, to consideration of environmental management and audit systems, or yet wider still to ecological sustainability, economic viability and social acceptability (Spencer-Cooke, 1998). At whatever level this is addressed (and even if these levels are not agreed), this produces new knowledge challenges for construction pr...

Panel: e-government, the citizen and equity; e-service delivery and the non-user

... Improved telephone access Government aim (Cabinet Office 1999) The information age should i... more

Aylesbury revisited: outreach in the 1980s