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1 – 10 of over 18000Victor K.W. Shin, Ling Tung Tsang and Tommy H.L. Tse
This study aims to examine how the organizational structure of arts groups and their administrative personnel’s socio-demographic attributes affect the working conditions of and…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine how the organizational structure of arts groups and their administrative personnel’s socio-demographic attributes affect the working conditions of and create tensions for their staff. Recent discussion about the cultural industries and labor has pursued two strands – macro-level research expounds on the organization of cultural industries and labor market; and micro-level studies focus on the work and employment of cultural practitioners. Very few of them, however, articulate the relationships between the two levels. This study contributes to the literature with a multilevel framework that examines the interplay between the structural conditions and personal factors in which labor–capital relationships evolve.
Design/methodology/approach
This study applies a qualitative approach to collect and analyze data. It conducted 39 in-depth interviews with arts managers and administrators from a sample of 18 performing arts organizations across four performing arts sectors in Hong Kong, namely, drama, music, dance and opera. The stratified sample covers arts organizations of different funding models – the public “nationalized” form, the mixed-economy form, and the privatized form.
Findings
This study shows that the funding and organization model of arts organizations resulted in various forms of job structure, and that the practitioners’ socio-demographic background shapes their career expectations. The job structure and career expectations together affect the labor turnover and influence organization strategies.
Originality/value
This study’s methodological contribution lies on its application of a multilevel framework to analyze the relationships between the macro- and the micro-level factors underpinning the working conditions of labor in the cultural industries. Besides, it contributes to the discussion about “labor precariousness” with empirical evidence from a comparative study of arts managers and administrators from organizations across four performing arts sectors.
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Insights into UK National Health Service staff perceptions of the term “management” are given, together with many views on the implications of the Griffiths proposals. Nurses…
Abstract
Insights into UK National Health Service staff perceptions of the term “management” are given, together with many views on the implications of the Griffiths proposals. Nurses, clinicians, administrators and managers were questioned about their responses to the fundamental changes in the role of general managers. Comment is made on the levels of understanding about “management”, and interesting conclusions are drawn.
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The purpose of this paper is to assess the role of hedge fund administrators, particularly in relation to valuing complex and/or illiquid financial instruments.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess the role of hedge fund administrators, particularly in relation to valuing complex and/or illiquid financial instruments.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper proceeds by way of an analysis of key trends and developments within the hedge fund administration industry in relation to the regulatory challenges posed by complex and/or illiquid instruments.
Findings
The paper argues that, because of inherent problems over the attribution of value to complex and/or illiquid assets, emphasis on independent valuation by administrators is largely misplaced. Recent events concerning valuation difficulties in the subprime mortgage market illustrate these very concerns.
Originality/value
The paper questions the ability of independent hedge fund administrators to provide reliable valuations for complex and/or illiquid instruments. Independent valuation of such assets suggests a level of scrutiny that is in fact not present. Moreover, the financial market meltdown surrounding the collapse of the subprime mortgage market provides a timely and salutary reminder that independent valuations of complex and/or illiquid instruments are inherently unreliable.
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Fabio Cassia and Francesca Magno
According to the “New Public Management” paradigm, citizens are viewed as active participants through all the different steps of service planning and provision. Nonetheless…
Abstract
Purpose
According to the “New Public Management” paradigm, citizens are viewed as active participants through all the different steps of service planning and provision. Nonetheless, citizens' involvement is still far from being systematically applied within local governments. The purpose of this paper is to give a contribution to this stream of research by investigating whether a part of this resistance could be explained by the differences between public administrators and elected officials' perspectives on the role of the citizens in service quality improvement processes.
Design/methodology/approach
A mail survey was conducted among a sample of Italian town municipalities in May and June of 2010. A total of 102 questionnaires were returned (59 from politicians and 43 from public managers), and these questionnaires were then analysed through t‐tests and regressions.
Findings
Findings support the existence of a statistically significant difference between public administrators' and elected officials' attitudes. Differences exist in three main issues: the relative importance of citizens as sources of inputs to improve public service quality, the objectives of citizens' involvement and the structure of citizens' preferences.
Research limitations/implications
Results could have been influenced by the degree of New Public Management development within the specific research setting (Italian local governments).
Practical implications
Formalising the role, the timing and the contribution of citizens' involvement to the municipal decision‐making process could help to mitigate the mentioned dualism. Creating a favourable cultural background and sharing a citizen‐oriented vision within the whole organisation, from top levels to front‐line employees, is fundamental.
Originality/value
This paper is the first to suggest that these resistances toward involving citizens in quality improvement processes could be due to the differences between administrators' and elected officials' perspectives.
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The purpose of this paper is to explore a possible discursive history of National Health Service (NHS) “management” (with management, for reasons that will become evident, very…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore a possible discursive history of National Health Service (NHS) “management” (with management, for reasons that will become evident, very much in scare quotes). Such a history is offered as a complement, as well as a counterpoint, to the more traditional approaches that have already been taken to the history of the issue.
Design/methodology/approach
Document analysis and interviews with UK NHS trust chief executives.
Findings
After explicating the assumptions of the method it suggests, through a range of empirical sources that the NHS has undergone an era of administration, an era of management and an era of leadership.
Research limitations/implications
The paper enables a recasting of the history of the NHS; in particular, the potential for such a discursive history to highlight the interests supported and denied by different representational practices.
Practical implications
Today’s so-called leaders are leaders because of conventional representational practices – not because of some essence about what they really are.
Social implications
New ideas about the nature of management.
Originality/value
The value of thinking in terms of what language does – rather than what it might represent.
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Nathaniel Ayinde Olatunde and Henry A. Odeyinka
Studies on stakeholder management (SM) in developing countries have largely focused on public projects. However, projects of private organisations also need much improvement. The…
Abstract
Purpose
Studies on stakeholder management (SM) in developing countries have largely focused on public projects. However, projects of private organisations also need much improvement. The purpose of the study was to examine the extent of SM practices in building projects procured by private corporate organisations.
Design/methodology/approach
Purposive sampling technique was used to select project managers (PMs) and client representatives (CRs) who have been involved in projects procured by private corporate organisations between 2008 and 2017 in Southwestern Nigeria. The PMs are comprised of executive and non-executive PMs as well as contract administrators. Both the PMs and CRs were requested to provide information on one building project in which they were involved within the period under consideration. The data collected were analysed using mean score (MS) analysis, t-test, and analysis of variance.
Findings
The results showed that structured SM processes were followed in only 30.65% of building projects procured by private corporate organisations in the study area. Results further showed on a five-point scale 5-max scale that SM practice was highest with an MS of 3.92 on projects where executive PMs were appointed and lowest (MS = 2.85) on projects where PMs were appointed as contract administrators. Furthermore, it was found that respondents placed the highest premium (MS = 3.73) on stakeholder identification while they placed the lowest premium (MS = 3.45) on developing implementation strategies and stakeholder classification.
Practical implications
The study examines the status quo regarding SM practice in the study area in order to devise a means of refinement.
Originality/value
The study is an attempt to evaluate the premium placed on different components of SM practices by differing categories of project managers.
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Carrie Blanchard Bush, Ellen M. Key and Robert D. Eskridge
This research explores the role of political ideology in local policy formation by assessing the impact of the city manager's ideology on local expenditures. While previous…
Abstract
This research explores the role of political ideology in local policy formation by assessing the impact of the city manager's ideology on local expenditures. While previous studies have identified nuanced and overlapping roles between administration and politics, here we extend those investigations by positing that ideology may influence a manager's role in the policy formation of the budget. Although some conceptualizations of city managers assume them to be largely apolitical in a partisan sense, we find a significant effect of ideology on local expenditures among city managers. This adds to the literature that suggests that city managers may not merely passively implement policies created by elected officials; rather city managers may influence policy in multifaceted ways, thereby driving a need to further investigate individual influences upon policy formation.