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1 – 10 of over 2000Ian R. Hodgkinson, Thomas W. Jackson and Andrew A. West
Customer experience is more critical than ever to firms’ successes and future growth opportunities. Typically measured through aggregate satisfaction scores, businesses have been…
Abstract
Purpose
Customer experience is more critical than ever to firms’ successes and future growth opportunities. Typically measured through aggregate satisfaction scores, businesses have been criticized for oversimplifying what experience means. The purpose of this study is to provide a new perspective on experience management and offers a novel way forward for customer-centric strategizing.
Design/methodology/approach
Mapping the current digital technologies being used across businesses in all sectors to engage and connect with customers more effectively, this paper outlines some of the fundamental challenges of experience management and future opportunities to enhance business practice.
Findings
Businesses are capturing what they know about customers, rather than what a customer thinks and feels about the firm. Many experience management initiatives create customer pains (not gains), while for businesses, decision-making can be jeopardized by fake customer data. A framework based upon the five experience dimensions is presented for optimal customer-driven decision-making.
Practical implications
Going beyond aggregate satisfaction scores that serve as an output rather than an input into businesses strategizing, the paper presents an actionable framework for targeted investments and enhanced experience management practices.
Originality/value
Businesses are seeking to grow intelligent customer experience analysis capabilities to disrupt traditional business models toward greater customer-centricity and to track the digital spread of positive and negative experiences. Examining how this is being done and where the weaknesses lie by bridging management practice and the scientific literature, this paper provides new knowledge to advance customer-centric strategies for growth and profitability.
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Andrew West and Sherrena Buckby
Recognising the growing importance of professional judgement within professional accounting, this paper examines how it relates to Aristotelian practical wisdom, with reference to…
Abstract
Purpose
Recognising the growing importance of professional judgement within professional accounting, this paper examines how it relates to Aristotelian practical wisdom, with reference to the ethical failure at Carillion plc in 2018. This includes an examination of how these concepts are similar and how they differ and a reconceptualisation of professional judgement in Aristotelian terms.
Design/methodology/approach
The conventional understanding of professional judgement is articulated with reference to accounting standards, professional accounting institutions and academic research. This is compared to Aristotelian practical wisdom, as presented in the Nicomachean Ethics. Both of these conceptualisations are analysed with reference to the failure of Carillion plc.
Findings
Some similarities as well as significant differences between the conventional conceptualisation of professional judgement and Aristotelian practical wisdom are identified. Application to the accounting failure of Carillion plc shows how an Aristotelian reconceptualisation of professional judgement, as an ethical concept, provides a more adequate understanding of unethical accounting behaviour.
Research limitations/implications
The analysis identifies aspects of professional judgement in accounting that have not previously been explored empirically, but which nevertheless have empirical support in other domains.
Practical implications
Professional judgement is reconceptualised in ethical terms, which informs how professional bodies and firms should conceive and apply this concept.
Originality/value
Although there has been research on judgement informed by psychology, there has been little research linking judgement and wisdom in an accounting context. This paper utilises a philosophically informed perspective on wisdom to reconceptualise professional judgement in a way that provides a more adequate understanding of ethical failures.
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The purpose of this paper is to examine how Aristotle’s ethics can be applied to the ethics of professional accountants (PAs), in relation to the approach adopted by the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how Aristotle’s ethics can be applied to the ethics of professional accountants (PAs), in relation to the approach adopted by the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), and to consider the reasons that justify the Aristotelian approach.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper outlines IFAC’s approach and identifies several weaknesses. Three themes of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics are applied to the work of PAs. Reasons why this perspective is more suitable for PAs are then articulated.
Findings
Several aspects of Aristotle’s ethics can be fruitfully applied to the ethics of PAs. These include the relationship between function, goals and the good, an awareness of the human goal to achieve eudaimonia, the development of both excellences of character and of intelligence, and the significance of non-rational aspects of morality, including emotions, will, responsibility and choice.
Research limitations/implications
This perspective provides an alternative conceptualisation of the ethics of PAs. Although it does not provide concrete guidance regarding what the ethical approach to specific situations may be, it presents a useful counterpoint to existing approaches that are largely deontological and utilitarian.
Practical implications
This paper provides accountants in practice with a more comprehensive and adequate perspective on what it means for a PA to be ethical, and raises several issues related to how ethics is included in the education and training of accountants.
Originality/value
Investigating the philosophical basis for professional ethics approaches professional codes of ethics in a way that it is not typically considered. The paper also provides a more comprehensive application of Aristotelian ethics than previous work.
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Academics examining the global South who engage in informal politics to understand social and political issues should be prepared to diversify their methods toolkit. Informal ties…
Abstract
Purpose
Academics examining the global South who engage in informal politics to understand social and political issues should be prepared to diversify their methods toolkit. Informal ties and politics are where one learns about social and economic exclusion. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
Mixed qualitative methods – such as individual interviews, surveys, and focus groups – provide an understanding of the people’s perspective, enabling the researcher to truly know what is going on.
Findings
Fieldwork in the downtown communities of Kingston, Jamaica, has an element of danger because violence and politics are very much a part of the daily reality of the people being interviewed. In this paper, the author argues that studying how financial resources are allocated to low-income people and understanding why some groups purposefully self-exclude themselves from economic development programs require unorthodox field methods. The author thus uses political ethnography to understand the experience of marginalized Jamaican people.
Originality/value
Mixed qualitative methods and political ethnography assisted the author to understand the actual experience of marginalized people and politicized financial programs.
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Valuing People presents a range of challenges for managers and other stakeholders. Partnership boards are charged with leading the change process. The paper sets out the steps…
Abstract
Valuing People presents a range of challenges for managers and other stakeholders. Partnership boards are charged with leading the change process. The paper sets out the steps that the West Sussex Board has taken to meet these challenges and describes in particular a ‘framework for frameworks’ that the Board has adopted to produce truly person‐centred and inclusive plans. The paper concludes that stakeholders can be empowered to find their voice where planners commit to an inclusive process.
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Susan Hamilton, Richard Wilson and Andrew Butcher
The debate on reorganisation of hospital services is fertile ground for expert opinion. The Joint Consultants Committee (JCC) have produced the most recent view on the ideal acute…
Abstract
The debate on reorganisation of hospital services is fertile ground for expert opinion. The Joint Consultants Committee (JCC) have produced the most recent view on the ideal acute hospital size and consultant staffing; however, their ideal is far removed from reality. A survey of trusts across the West Midlands found that many are falling short of the recommendations, such as meeting a one‐in‐five consultant on‐call rota for the major admitting specialties and providing adequate cover in the core sub‐specialties of general medicine and general surgery. While the JCC recommendations give a welcome direction and focus to workforce planning, reaching some of these will require a large financial investment and an increase in the number of trainees. Prioritising the recommendations may help to facilitate implementation by health‐care providers.
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The student revolt of 1967 to 1974, which finally expired about 1978, retains its fascination and much of its significance in the twenty‐first century. But the seven or so years…
Abstract
The student revolt of 1967 to 1974, which finally expired about 1978, retains its fascination and much of its significance in the twenty‐first century. But the seven or so years which preceded it are often passed over as simply a precursor, the incubation of a subsequent explosion; they deserve a higher status. The concentration of interest on the late 1960s and early 1970s arises from the driving role of students in the cultural revolution whose traumatic impact still echoes with us. As late as 2005 some commentators saw federal legislation introducing Voluntary Student Unionism as the culmination of struggles in the 1970s when Deputy Prime Minister Costello and Health Minister Abbott battled their radical enemies. Interest in these turbulent years at a popular, non‐academic level has produced a succession of nostalgic reminiscences. In the Sydney Morning Herald’s ‘Good Weekend’ for 13 December 2003 Mark Dapin pondered whether the Melbourne Maoists had changed their world views (‘Living by the Little Red book’.) In the Sydney University Gazette of October 1995 Andrew West asserted that the campus radicals of the 1960s and ‘70s had remained true to their basic beliefs (‘Not finished fighting’.) Some years later, in April 2003, the editor of that journal invited me to discuss ‘Where have all the rebels gone?’ My answer treated this as a twofold question: What has happened to the former rebels? Why have the students of today abandoned radicalism?
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Chong W. Kim, Harlan M. Smith, Andrew Sikula and Lorraine P. Anderson
The purpose of this paper is, first, to summarize six studies which analyze the key characteristics of different types of employees. Three types of employees found in workplaces…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is, first, to summarize six studies which analyze the key characteristics of different types of employees. Three types of employees found in workplaces all over the world are identified as “Necessities,” “Commoners,” and “Parasites” and, second, to combine the results of these studies in order to identify the key traits and behaviors that characterize each type of worker across a variety of social and cultural settings.
Design/methodology/approach
For starters, three types of employees are defined. First, a person is a Necessity if s/he is irreplaceable and critical to the functioning of an organization. Second, a Commoner is a person of normal ability and talent who has no significant impact on organizational processes. Last, Parasites are detrimental freeloaders who damage the functioning of an organization. To identify the principal characteristics of these three types of workers, a group of researchers led by the first author conducted six studies in which they collected survey data from undergraduate and graduate business students in the USA, India, Korea, Chile, and Japan.
Findings
The authors note the points of commonality and difference across the data sets, and offer their thoughts on future research in the area. The perceptions of what characterizes really good workers (people of Necessity) and very bad workers (Parasites) appear to be the same in all five countries. The picture painted for the Commoner across all data sets, however, is not as clear‐cut.
Originality/value
The study described in this paper helps to explain both similarities and differences in employee characteristics between and among workers in different countries and cultures.
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The National Ports Council has been developing a concept of progress meetings based on working groups, over a period of ten years. The original ideas were refined from experience…
Abstract
The National Ports Council has been developing a concept of progress meetings based on working groups, over a period of ten years. The original ideas were refined from experience with a Fred Olsen Lines cargo handling subsidiary in the London Millwall Docks and extended to the local Port Authority as well as a number of other British ports. In Olsens the project began in 1967 when the NPC was called in to assist with problems encountered in operating a new labour agreement. The new mechanised system of loading and unloading ships with palletised cargo handled by fork lift trucks was a complete contrast to traditional methods of handling the Canary fruit trade. In particular the management of the new system put great strains on the cargo superintendents and supervisory group who were coping with the new technology. The approach used was essentially to create an atmosphere of mutual trust and support between individuals and between related levels of management. People were encouraged to discuss: • What their job objectives were and how these related to their concept of overall efficiency for the organisation. • What problems existed and possible means of overcoming them. The role that we played was to listen, to summarise and to help the various levels of management and managed to diagnose the work problems they encountered. As we had no axe to grind we could put a point of view to people and at the same time show them how they might be perceived by others.
millennium, n. Period of a thousand years, esp. that of Christ's reign on person on earth (Rev. xx.1–5); (fig.) period of good government, great happiness & prosperity. Hence ∼AL…
Abstract
millennium, n. Period of a thousand years, esp. that of Christ's reign on person on earth (Rev. xx.1–5); (fig.) period of good government, great happiness & prosperity. Hence ∼AL a. [f. L mille thousand + annus year, on anal. Of biennium two years' space] (Oxford Dictionary 1964, p. 768). The Millennium is not a foreign fad. It is a cultural metaphor — admittedly an arbitrary one (Jull 1998, p. 20). (I)mperialism, as we shall see, lingers where it has always been, in a kind of general cultural sphere as well as in specific political, ideological, economic, and social practices (Said 1994, p. 4).