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1 – 8 of 8C. McGilligan, P. de Wilde and S. Goodhew
This article seeks to investigate the interconnections between the expectations of the impact of energy certificates issued within the UK domestic building sector through the…
Abstract
Purpose
This article seeks to investigate the interconnections between the expectations of the impact of energy certificates issued within the UK domestic building sector through the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) and the actual number and financial implications of the energy saving measures (ESMs) achieved.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodology uses two previously published surveys and compares these with a third independent survey by the authors focusing upon the discrepancies between planned action and implemented action, introducing the term human factor element (hfe).
Findings
The article concludes that annual carbon savings arising from implementation of the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) may be as low as 73.4 ktC over the five year term of the Kyoto Protocol even though 44 per cent of energy saving measure costs of £200 million are recouped within the same time period and savings will continue for up to 40 years. Achieving annual savings of only 14.7 ktC by 2010, such a figure represents a mere 0.3 per cent of the annual domestic 4.8 MtC savings announced by the government in its 2006 Climate Change Programme.
Practical implications
Since the principal determinant in the uptake of ESMs is initial cost, it is considered that the EPBD is likely to remain an under‐performing instrument in the promotion of energy sufficiency until such time as other complementary provisions are introduced.
Originality/value
Sheds light upon the likely financial impact upon energy efficiency in domestic buildings by energy certificates.
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Jianhua Wang, May Chu, Yuan yuan Deng, Honming Lam and Jianjun Tang
The purpose of this paper is to investigate farmers’ intentions to comply with pesticide application standards based on an extended theory of planned behaviour (TPB).
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate farmers’ intentions to comply with pesticide application standards based on an extended theory of planned behaviour (TPB).
Design/methodology/approach
Built on a TPB framework, it was examined how perceived behavioural control (PBC), behavioural goal (BG), behavioural attitude (BA) and subjective norm (SN) influenced farmers’ intention to comply with pesticide application standards. Data of 986 farmers from five major agricultural provinces in China were collected following a stratified random sampling method. Structural equation modelling was employed for hypothesis testing and analysis.
Findings
The results showed that PBC, BG, behavioural attitude and SN had positive impacts on farmers’ intention in abiding by the standards. Among them in determining farmers’ intention towards compliance with pesticide application standards, farmers’ PBC was found to be the most influential factor, while SN was the least influential factor.
Originality/value
The results indicated that the traditional TPB constructs had significant correlations with farmers’ intention to comply with pesticide standards, demonstrating the applicability of the TPB in the understanding of farmers’ decision-making in a developing country context. It is suggested that psychological factors should be taken into consideration in studying farmers’ decision-making.
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Patricia Genoe McLaren and Albert J. Mills
The purpose of this paper is to explore the idea that the ideal manager is a social construct that is a product of the context within which it exists. The context chosen to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the idea that the ideal manager is a social construct that is a product of the context within which it exists. The context chosen to illustrate this idea is that of the first two decades of the Cold War (1945‐1965) in the USA.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodology used is an analysis of 17 management textbooks published between 1945 and 1965 in the USA.
Findings
The analysis of the textbooks shows a typification of the ideal manager as an educated male who wielded authority effectively and accepted social responsibility. These four characteristics can all be tied to the social and political context of the early Cold War years.
Research limitations/implications
Limited by its focus on management theory in the USA during the early Cold War era, and a selection of textbooks based on available resources. Future research could analyze the ideal manager construct during social and political contexts other than the Cold War, and across other social formations (e.g. the UK, Canada, France, etc.).
Practical implications
Practical implications apply to both organizations and academic institutions. Management educators should be attempting to use textbooks that present management theory in a problematic way and organizations should be aware of the impact of social and political context on the construct of the manager in order to determine the qualities and characteristics that are most needed today.
Originality/value
The paper looks at the ideal manager as a social construct, rather than an ideal that was created void of outside influence and assumed to be ideal for all contexts. It also uses the context of the Cold War period, which has been a neglected context in management research.
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THE NINETIENTH ANNIVERSARY of Sean O'Casey's birth and the recent acquisition by the New York Public Library of the papers of his literary estate afford an opportunity to view…
Abstract
THE NINETIENTH ANNIVERSARY of Sean O'Casey's birth and the recent acquisition by the New York Public Library of the papers of his literary estate afford an opportunity to view, once more, the remarkable achievements of a dramatist of universal distinction. A passionate believer in the cause of man's dignity and freedom, whose plays touched off riots and sparked off controversies, whose works wrung the beauty and passion and heartaches from the experiences of everyday life and ‘whose lips were royally touched’—to quote J. C. Trewin's recent colourful phrase—O'Casey was, with Shaw, one of the few incomparably great playwrights of the present century. Not without his detractors: one critic's jibe that O'Casey is ‘an extremely overrated writer with two or three competent Naturalist plays to his credit, followed by a lot of ideological bloat and embarrassing bombast’ is the kind of factitious reaction one expects from critically immature minds. Shaw's plays, at first, were slighted, but they survived, and today are flourishing; predictably, O'Casey's will enjoy a similar fate. O'Casey is a world dramatist in the widest sense, because he viewed the theatre in the same epic way as Shakespeare and the rest of the Elizabethans.
Christopher M. Hartt, Albert J. Mills and Jean Helms Mills
This paper aims to study the role of non-corporeal Actant theory in historical research through a case study of the trajectory of the New Deal as one of the foremost institutions…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to study the role of non-corporeal Actant theory in historical research through a case study of the trajectory of the New Deal as one of the foremost institutions in the USA since its inception in the early 1930s.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors follow the trajectory of the New Deal through a focus on Vice President Henry A. Wallace. Drawing on ANTi-History, the authors view history as a powerful discourse for organizing understandings of the past and non-corporeal Actants as a key influence on making sense of (past) events.
Findings
The authors conclude that non-corporeal Actants influence the shaping of management and organization studies that serve paradoxically to obfuscate history and its relationship to the past.
Research limitations/implications
The authors drew on a series of published studies of Henry Wallace and archival material in the Roosevelt Library, but the study would benefit from an in-depth analysis of the Wallace archives.
Practical implications
The authors reveal the influences of non-corporeal Actants as a method for dealing with the past. The authors do this through the use of ANTi-History as a method of historical analysis.
Social implications
The past is an important source of understanding of the present and future; this innovative approach increases the potential to understand.
Originality/value
Decisions are often black boxes. Non-Corporeal Actants are a new tool with which to see the underlying inputs of choice.
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Simon Shurville and John Williams
To show how a combination of hard and soft project and change management methodologies guided successful in‐house development of a campus‐wide information system.
Abstract
Purpose
To show how a combination of hard and soft project and change management methodologies guided successful in‐house development of a campus‐wide information system.
Design/methodology/approach
A case study of the methodologies and management structures that guided the development is presented.
Findings
Applying a combination of the dynamic systems development method, rapid prototyping, PRINCE 2, Checkland's soft systems methodologies and change management helped to develop a product that met user needs, offered value for money and was delivered on time.
Practical implications
The case study shows that the advantages of formal governance brought by PRINCE 2 can be retained in a softer environment where user needs generate work packages and stage gates.
Originality/value
There is widespread evidence that more than half of all IT projects fail and that the softer people issues are essential for success. The paper presents an example of fusing softer approaches with formal governance. It should interest programme and project managers, senior sponsors, software developers and usability specialists.
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In a technological age where and how does the health sector fit in? Have hospitals and other health agencies that are updated technologically also advanced in other areas of…
Abstract
In a technological age where and how does the health sector fit in? Have hospitals and other health agencies that are updated technologically also advanced in other areas of service and operation?
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