Who are our members

EGOS membership is open to all who are interested in the development of organizational studies. Membership is not confined to Europe, it is available to individuals worldwide who are interested in interaction with the EGOS network, its publications and participation in conferences.

The Association is a registered charity, and is run by its members through its chairpersons and coordinating committee who are elected annually.

MEMBERSHIP EXPECTATIONS AND PROPOSALS
RESULTS OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE ON EGOS MEMBERSHIP
Silvia Gherardi and Barbara Poggio
Università di Trento
Dipartimento di Sociologia e Ricerca Sociale
June 2000

This report sets out the data gathered by the questionnaire sent via e-mail to the participants of the last three EGOS Colloquia. Altogether 193 persons replied out of a total of 425. Within the respondents 173 are EGOS members and 20 are non members. Considering that at December 1999 the EGOS members were 345, we had a 50,1% return rate from members. According to the nationality they were distributed as follow:

Table 1 - NATIONALITY

The purpose of the questionnaire was to gather information on Egos membership which would be of assistance to the board in understanding members’ expectations and in accordingly shaping the future development of our organization.

The questionnaire yielded structural data that can be used to draw up an identikit of EGOS members. As regards academic titles, the majority are university lecturers (54.9%), in particular full professors. However, there is also a substantial percentage of PhDs (35.9%).

Table 2 - TITLE

The average age of members is relatively young (42) with a very wide range from 25 to 80 years of age. The largest age group consists of 36-to-40 year olds.

Table 3 - AGE

The third structural variable considered was sex. The questionnaire revealed that women constitute just under one-third of total EGOS membership (30.7%). Sex is a variable correlated with both qualification and age. One notes that the female presence is particularly high among graduate students (70%) and among assistant and associate professors. This latter finding is a cause for concern in that it seems to gainsay the existence of a trend towards change in the younger generation.

Fig. 1 – TITLE BY SEX

Considering the relation between sex and age, one notes that the largest proportion of women is in the cohort aged between 25 and 30, and in cohorts aged between 41 and 50. The proportion is smaller in more elderly age groups, but also in the cohort aged between 36 and 40, probably in concomitance with heavier family responsibilities.

Fig. 2 – AGE BY SEX

The majority of respondents work in management or business schools, while a smaller percentage of Egos members operate in university sociology or social science departments. Around one respondent in ten belongs to a school of economics.

Table 4 - INSTITUTION

Besides Egos, respondents were members of various other associations: mainly their national associations, but also European and international ones. In particular, 85 respondents (44%) were also members of the American Academy of Management.

Table 5 – OTHER ASSOCIATIONS TO WHICH RESPONDENTS BELONG

As regards disciplinary area, respondents defined their field mainly as management and sociology (respectively 44.4 and 41.3%), followed by business studies (22.5%) and organization studies (21.9%) in the interdisciplinary sense. Drawing disciplinary boundaries and distinctions is obviously difficult, but the following more detailed breakdown is interesting.

Table 6 - DISCIPLINARY AREA OF WORK

When the principal areas of interest reported by respondents are analysed, the largest category is "organization theory and analysis", which comprises almost half of all respondents, followed by "change and innovation", indicated by one in every four respondents, "management" (22.5%), business knowledge and knowledge management (18.7%) and organizational culture (17.1%). One may therefore deduce that the scientific interests of Egos members are equally divided between organization theory and its practical application. The area of management in the strict sense, in fact, is rather large.

Table 7- MAIN AREA OF RESEARCH INTEREST

88.9% of respondents had renewed their membership for 2000. The main reasons cited by those who had not were economic ones, and among them the fact that their institution preferred other organizations.

Respondents had attended two Egos colloquia on average, although one in four had never attended, and almost the same number only once.

Table 8 - NUMBER OF EGOS COLLOQUIA ATTENDED

Considering the last three colloquia, the ones with the largest attendance have been Warwick (53.9%) and Helsinki (54.4%). Participation seems to be correlated with the number of colloquia attended previously. This means that the probability of being present in Helsinki was higher among members who had most frequently taken part in colloquia. Attendance was on average highest among full professors, and there was no difference between men and women. This indicates a high turnover as well as more constant attendance by members with higher academic positions.

Table 9 - DID YOU ATTEND THE MOST RECENT COLLOQUIA

20% of respondents were connected to one of the working groups within Egos, and 70% agreed that Egos should have standing working groups. Only 2% disagreed; the remaining 27% were probably unaware of their existence.

The questionnaire asked what the respondent thought should be the primary role of Egos: replies mainly referred to networking and academic forum, which was indicated by five in ten respondents.

Table 10 - PRIMARY ROLE THAT EGOS SHOULD SERVE

The aspects considered distinctive of the dell’Egos Colloquium were the possibility of working in group sessions where people stay all the time (28.5%), followed by the variety of disciplines, nations, cultures and perspectives distinctive of the event (14.5%). Among positive aspects also mentioned was the good atmosphere due to the fact that the hierarchy is played down (8.3%).

Table 11 - DISTINCTIVE ASPECT OF EGOS COLLOQUIA IN COMPARISON TO OTHER CONFERENCES

Group work was mentioned as the most appreciated aspect of Egos colloquia (29%). Also appreciated was the fact that it is possible to take part in focused discussion (11.4%) but on a wide range of topics and disciplines (9.8%).

Table 12 - MOST APPRECIATED ASPECTS OF EGOS COLLOQUIA

The aspects least appreciated by respondents were to do with organization and the coordination of groups (the sending of papers, lack of interest by participants, poor management of the group). However, it should be pointed out that more than half of the respondents did not mention any aspect.

Table 13 - MOST DISLIKED ASPECTS OF EGOS COLLOQUIA

The questionnaire also included questions on the services supplied to Egos members, like the journal Organization Studies and the Egos website. Organization Studies was read regularly by 91.1% of respondents. A smaller percentage also read the ‘Notes and News’ section (51.3%). The Egos website was visited by 68.4% of respondents. Suggestions were made for its improvement, among which that it should be made more active and dynamic or more useful (e.g. by providing access to Organization Studies, bibliographies and articles, or useful links).

Table 14 - TO WHAT EXTENT DO THE PRESENT SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES OF EGOS MEET YOUR NEEDS?

Overall, respondents seemed reasonably satisfied with the services provided by Egos: none of them declared themselves entirely dissatisfied, and only 5.8% ‘quite poorly satisfied’. Only very few suggested improvements, for example inviting Egos to have closer contacts in Europe.

Table 15 - WOULD YOU LIKE TO BECOME ACTIVELY INVOLVED IN EGOS ACTIVITIES SUCH AS:

Finally, with regard to activities, there was considerable interest in being involved as a sub-theme convenor (45.1% of respondents), and in becoming national correspondent (23.3%) and convenor for pre-conference workshops (21.8%)