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1 – 10 of over 8000In “A Structural Analysis of the UK Grocery RetailMarket”, Robert Duke used Michael E. Porter′s framework for thestructural analysis of industries to analyse the UK grocery…
Abstract
In “A Structural Analysis of the UK Grocery Retail Market”, Robert Duke used Michael E. Porter′s framework for the structural analysis of industries to analyse the UK grocery retail market. Since this article was published in 1989, many potentially significant changes and developments have happened in this market, making an update of Duke′s 1989 analysis of interest. Sources of even greater power over suppliers enjoyed by retailers can be traced to implementations of new technologies in grocery retailing, and to the growth of pan‐European concentrations of buying power, while the threat posed by price‐cutting new entrants will force incumbents to use more of this power. Competition in the market itself will be influenced by superstore saturation, the emergence of a “Big Three” of retailers, and by potentially significant new entrants, able to defeat the market′s barriers to entry. This will create a more complex competitive structure.
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DUKES LONDON Hotel was once a Mayfair favourite with the Queen Mother and the Princess of Wales – but had got to a stage where it was in danger of losing its five-star rating. New…
Abstract
Purpose
DUKES LONDON Hotel was once a Mayfair favourite with the Queen Mother and the Princess of Wales – but had got to a stage where it was in danger of losing its five-star rating. New management meant an opportunity to re-engage with staff and use their strengths to create the best possible guest experience.
Design/methodology/approach
An ongoing programme of leadership and engagement workshops was run to create a family-style culture within the hotel, re-connecting employees with the hotel’s ambitions and their part in the plans.
Findings
The work has led to international awards for customer service, best hotel in London awards and increased profitability, and is now being used as the model to set up a new DUKES DUBAI hotel.
Originality/value
The work at DUKES LONDON demonstrates the importance of translating organisational values and goals for staff at every level, making use of management development to ensure the messages are easily understood as day-to-day behaviours and consistently monitored and appraised.
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Purpose – This chapter examines the role of family resources and social networks during the admissions process, across the college years and into postgraduation plans, and…
Abstract
Purpose – This chapter examines the role of family resources and social networks during the admissions process, across the college years and into postgraduation plans, and considers how different forms of social capital contribute to the intergenerational transmission of advantage.Methodology/approach – I conduct an analysis of survey data from a panel study of students attending a highly selective, private university. First, I examine how social class is associated with admissions resources, including family legacy ties to the institution, and access to campus networks. Next, I test the effects of campus networks and activities on end-of-college outcomes with logistic regression predicting graduation honors and multinomial logistic regression predicting expected and actual occupation about five years after graduation.Findings – A key benefit of an abundance of social capital is the ability to convert resources into other forms of capital and to compensate for deficits in other areas. Extensive campus networks – an example of immediate social capital – are associated with higher levels of academic performance, plans to attend graduate school, and high-status career aspirations. Admission preferences for legacies – an example of institutionalized social capital – disproportionately benefit white students from affluent families and serve to advantage an already advantaged group.Research limitations – This study is restricted to matriculants at an elite university, and results should not be generalized to all postsecondary students. Although social class is associated with differences in family resources and ties to campus, few elite university students enter college from households with absolute deficits of economic, cultural, or social capital.
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A room attendant in a small hotel with approximately 63 employees undermines her supervisors and disregards authority in deliberate defiance of company policies, rules…
Abstract
Synopsis
A room attendant in a small hotel with approximately 63 employees undermines her supervisors and disregards authority in deliberate defiance of company policies, rules, regulations and procedures. Disrespect is shown in several behaviours that include interfering with the work of other employees, spreading rumours, gossiping to other room attendants and complaining about unfair treatment.
Research methodology
This case was field researched and the company and individuals are disguised.
Relevant courses and levels
This case is suitable for third- or fourth-year undergraduate students. Within human resource management it is suited for use in a course or series of classes on employee relations or performance management. The case could also be used for an organizational behaviour course to explore conflict and struggle in organizations and the range of passive and active resistance practices that occur. In this particular case the context of women and minorities working in low-skilled roles could be examined.
Theoretical bases
In advance of this case students should have a background in performance management theory and practice, disciplinary systems and practice and the behaviours associated with workplace resistance, insubordination and misconduct.
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Denise Akason and William M. Bennett
The case puts students in the shoes of Todd Davis, founder and CEO of a boutique brownfield redevelopment firm, Hemisphere Development, in 2010. Davis is wrestling with decisions…
Abstract
The case puts students in the shoes of Todd Davis, founder and CEO of a boutique brownfield redevelopment firm, Hemisphere Development, in 2010. Davis is wrestling with decisions and processes surrounding the potential acquisition and redevelopment of the former Delphi Automotive plant in Columbus, Ohio. When making the investment decision, Davis (and students) must consider various factors: What is Hemisphere's implicit investment strategy, and what are the firm's core competencies? How should the firm finance this transaction to achieve an acceptable return?
Practice creatively structuring and financing unique transactions
Describe the importance of baseline analysis in dealing with contaminated or potentially contaminated properties, and understand that the timing of baseline analysis can be crucial in determining the viability of a transaction
State the importance of each type of constituent in public-private transactions
Recognize the benefits of specialized/niche expertise in deal-makin
Practice creatively structuring and financing unique transactions
Describe the importance of baseline analysis in dealing with contaminated or potentially contaminated properties, and understand that the timing of baseline analysis can be crucial in determining the viability of a transaction
State the importance of each type of constituent in public-private transactions
Recognize the benefits of specialized/niche expertise in deal-makin
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On Inauguration Day 2017, Milo Yiannopoulos gave a talk sponsored by the University of Washington College Republicans entitled “Cyberbullying Isn’t Real.” This chapter is based on…
Abstract
On Inauguration Day 2017, Milo Yiannopoulos gave a talk sponsored by the University of Washington College Republicans entitled “Cyberbullying Isn’t Real.” This chapter is based on participant-observation conducted in the crowd outside the venue that night and analyzes the violence that occurs when the blurring of the boundaries between “free” and “hate” speech is enacted on the ground. This ethnographic examination rethinks relationships between law, bodies, and infrastructure as it considers debates over free speech on college campuses from the perspectives of legal and public policy, as well as those who supported and protested Yiannopoulos’s right to speak at the University of Washington. First, this analysis uses ethnographic research to critique the absolutist free speech argument presented by the legal scholars Erwin Chemerinsky and Howard Gillman. Second, this essay uses the theoretical work of Judith Butler and Sara Ahmed to make claims concerning relationships between speech, vulnerability, and violence. In so doing, this chapter argues that debates over free speech rights on college campuses need to be situated by processes of neoliberalization in higher education and reconsidered in light of the ways in which an absolutist position disproportionately protects certain people at the expense of certain others.
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Mathematics is associated with abstraction, generality, and simplicity, whereas reality is associated with specificity and complexity. Because of this, it might be argued that the…
Abstract
Mathematics is associated with abstraction, generality, and simplicity, whereas reality is associated with specificity and complexity. Because of this, it might be argued that the humanities disciplines are better than mathematics at providing accounts of the history of societies and the lives of individuals. The aim here is to counter this argument by presenting a mathematical account of a specific complex social reality. This is in accordance with recent appeals to peace scientists to engage with scholars in history and other humanities disciplines. Here, Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream is studied. The advantage of studying this piece is that the set of events is sufficiently complex to present a challenge to the modeler and yet sufficiently circumscribed to allow a reasonable coverage of the entire reality within the space of a paper.
The play is analyzed in terms of mathematical social science concepts. The analysis considers how people and groups participate in within-group and between-group activities over space and time. The value and power relationships in the activities are analyzed and the following concepts are deployed: roles, rules, hierarchy, anarchy, social divisions, and inequality. Some of the activities involve movement through space-time, and the set of movements can give rise to encounters. These may or may not be planned, and so alternative histories are in play. The analysis then switches to a more detailed level, and dialogic expressions of power relationships are noted. Finally, the logical structure of beliefs and dialogue is analyzed using “dynamic social propositional calculus.”
Coby Vincent Meyers and Bryan Alexander VanGronigen
School improvement planning, especially for low-performing schools, can be conceptualized as a planning process to strategically improve organizational processes, operations and…
Abstract
Purpose
School improvement planning, especially for low-performing schools, can be conceptualized as a planning process to strategically improve organizational processes, operations and outcomes. However, bureaucratic procedures and related inflexibilities sometimes results in inauthentic plan development. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the extent and ways in which principals engage in satisficing behavior – or being in the realm of “good enough” – when developing school improvement plans (SIPs).
Design/methodology/approach
The authors qualitatively analyzed 364 short-cycle SIPs submitted by principals of 134 low-performing schools participating across three cohorts of a university-based systems leadership program focused on change leadership and school turnaround.
Findings
Eight satisficing behaviors in the SIPs were identified. The five most prominent satisficing behaviors follow: plan content is consistent across schools within a district; a plan or plan features are resubmitted; plan priorities focus solely on test scores; plan timeline is insufficiently considered; and the directly responsible individual (DRI) (to complete tasks) is insufficiently considered. Overall, 80 percent of SIPs contained two to four satisficing behaviors, and fewer than ten SIPs were free of such behaviors or, in the authors’ estimation, completely authentic.
Originality/value
The development of SIPs is mandated for the nation’s lowest-performing schools, but little analysis of such plans has been conducted over the last 20 years. Moreover, although the notion that principals engage in satisficing behavior has been raised previously, to the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to systematically identify ways in which principals satisfice.
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Cynthia Leigh Wadlington, Janet Strickland, Natasha N. Ramsay-Jordan and Andrea Smith
Harlem Renaissance Party by Faith Ringgold follows a young boy and his uncle as they visit the “giants” of the Harlem Renaissance. Lonnie and Uncle Bates travel through Harlem to…
Abstract
Purpose
Harlem Renaissance Party by Faith Ringgold follows a young boy and his uncle as they visit the “giants” of the Harlem Renaissance. Lonnie and Uncle Bates travel through Harlem to meet historical figures, such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Langston Hughes, Madam CJ Walker and others. They also visit historical venues where Black artists performed. Such venues included the Cotton Club, the Harlem Opera House and the Schomburg Library.
Design/methodology/approach
As students study the end of the Civil War and the early 1900s, they should learn about the causes of the Great Migration that led Black artists to flee from the south to larger cities in the north. In addition, Jim Crow Laws and other discriminatory practices prevented Black artists from performing their crafts. The Harlem Renaissance has had lasting effects on arts, music, literature and dance. In addition, students should use credible sources to gather information and documents about historical events and people.
Findings
These inquiry-based activities also integrate arts education and history to reach diverse student populations as they gain meaningful experiences interacting with authentic documents.
Originality/value
As students study the end of the Civil War and the early 1900s, they should learn about the causes of the Great Migration that led Black artists to flee the south to larger cities in the north. In addition, Jim Crow Laws and other discriminatory practices prevented Black artists from performing their crafts.
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