In a communal farming situation, where production space overlaps with living space, informal communication within the organization plays an important role in supplementing information for the formal organization and facilitating the smooth operation of business. Noticing this feature of communication within the informal organization, this paper deals with the following two issues: firstly, to analyze the structure and characteristic of the information network formed among the organization members, and secondly, to investigate the way that the organization management of communal farming builds the structure characteristic of the information network. To approach these issues, the data, which show the relation among the members based on, were analyzed using the network analysis.
The structure of the scale-free network showed that most of the edges were concentrated on several hub officers including the union president, and few edges were put on the general members. To conclude, on the one hand, the structure shows an efficient information network for the general members; on the other hand, the load on the hub director increases. Moreover, the lack of the connection among the general members could cause loss of diversity within the organization. To optimize this aspect, we would like to suggest the following two points: firstly, it is necessary to reduce the leader’s load so as to facilitate the acquiring of a successor to the leadership position, and secondly, it is necessary to induce various forms of communication among members so as to enhance the diversity within the group for optimal business development.

抄録全体を表示

We visited Tuguozhai Village, Yuanyang County of Yunnan Province of the People’s Republic of China, where Chuhi-ho is widely applied as a traditional method of fertilizer placement. It applies manure as a recycled resource to maintain the rice terrace. The invesitation showed that this is a labor-saving system especially in terrains such as rice terraces on steep slopes. To maintain soil quality, the terrace is always filled with water. Although chuhi-ho and constant water-filling culture are conventional, cost-saving and easily operated by small scale farming, chemical fertilizers are penetrating through such communities due to recent socio-economic changes surrounding the communities. Over-dependence on fertilizers often causes problems. Therefore, such the resource-recycle system should be reevaluated to solve global resource shortage and environmental problems. Also, it nurtures not only forest and irrigation systems but also community structure and corporatism. We need to turn our attention to the general aspect of how people cultivate their fields and the irrigation system that they cooperatively use as a member of their village maintenance.

抄録全体を表示