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1 – 10 of over 113000The paper shares observations on each article in this volume, concluding that educational administration has continued to evolve in the application of organizational theory to…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper shares observations on each article in this volume, concluding that educational administration has continued to evolve in the application of organizational theory to schools and universities. A very important but recent focus of several studies reviewed is the connections they illustrate between organizational characteristics and processes and teaching and learning. Suggestions for future inquiry conclude this article.
Design/methodology/approach
Articles are summarized briefly and the author offers a brief critical commentary on each.
Findings
Each of the studies is an excellent example of the power and utility of organizational theory and its applicability to educational organizations. There is a real sense of theoretical pluralism represented in this collection, and a focus on studying real problems of administrative and organizational practice.
Originality/value
While the papers discussed illustrate advances in thinking since the early days of the “theory movement”, there remains the critical task of theory development. All articles are a reminder of the importance and utility of theory, and the advantage of validated theory as a guide to practice. However, only a few are a reminder of the need for scholars to focus on theory development and, more specifically, of the need for theory development addressing real problems of educational organization and administrative practice. Such studies are vital to the future of organizational theory as a field of inquiry.
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V.K. Narayanan and Lee J. Zane
The purpose of this paper is to offer an epistemological vantage point for theory development in the case of strategic leadership, an emerging focus of scholarly attention in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to offer an epistemological vantage point for theory development in the case of strategic leadership, an emerging focus of scholarly attention in strategic management.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors invoke Rescher's epistemological platform for making the case, Rescher being one of the most influential philosophers in the USA.
Findings
The analysis suggests that since strategic leadership differs from supervisory leadership, both on organizational reach and incorporation of external elements, defining the strategic leadership problem exclusively as a difference in context – what Weick referred to as a strategy of knowledge growth by extension – is likely to prove unproductive. Rescher's platform can be put to use for specifying the two critical though inter‐related epistemological challenges in the beginning of the theory development project: the choice of concepts, and the type of relations among the concepts. These epistemological challenges may be reframed as opportunities to capture the phenomenal variety embedded in these concepts, and to deploy a diversity of approaches to examine their correspondence.
Research limitations/implications
Contending and complementary views on strategic leadership, and hence concepts representing alternate views should be allowed. Bridges should be built between islands of scholarship, but these bridges are likely to be found in special issues of journals (devoted deliberately to nurture multiple perspectives), edited books and invited conferences.
Practical implications
Engagement with “strategic” leaders is an epistemological necessity for both theoretical and pragmatic reasons.
Originality/value
This paper demonstrates how epistemology can strengthen theory building in the case of strategic leadership. Given the signal importance of this phenomenon, good theories and, therefore, epistemological challenges should occupy a central stage of discussions in this early stage.
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Dave Valliere and Thomas Gegenhuber
The aim of this study is to explore the drivers of supply and demand for attention in the managerial context, and develop a framework of managerial tools for allocating attention…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this study is to explore the drivers of supply and demand for attention in the managerial context, and develop a framework of managerial tools for allocating attention to various competing demands.
Design/methodology/approach
Deliberative attention refers to the application of attention to prolonged reflection and consideration of problems where routine approaches are insufficient. Drawing on theories of cognitive and structural constraints to the allocation of attention among competing stimuli, the paper investigates how managers match the strategic demands for deliberative attention and the supply available to individuals in their firms. This is used to develop a model of factors influencing the matching of supply and demand.
Findings
The paper uses this model to recommend specific strategies for explicitly managing deliberative attention and to categorize the appropriate application of a range of existing strategic management tools based on the nature and inherent uncertainty of the organizational problem being faced.
Practical implications
The model suggests that a primary strategic task of top managers is the appropriate management of attention within the firm. Understanding attention as a firm resource to be appropriately and deliberately managed helps to advance theoretical understanding of the human side of valuable resources in the firm. Such knowledge may also help practitioners to be more cognizant of their investments of valuable attention resources.
Originality/value
This is one of the first studies to treat attention as a scarce and valuable firm resource to be managed, and to use this as the foundation for more appropriate application of a wide range of current management techniques.
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Discusses issues concerning the relationship between codified marketing theory and practical strategic marketing expertise, particularly with respect to the importance of “tacit”…
Abstract
Discusses issues concerning the relationship between codified marketing theory and practical strategic marketing expertise, particularly with respect to the importance of “tacit” or unarticulated knowledge. The trajectory of argument draws attention to the role of words as symbolic modelling devices and explores implications of this position for theorising marketing expertise. Makes use of a multidisciplinary perspective and draws material from work in cognitive science, the psychology of expertise and the philosophy of science. Sets the problematisation of practical theory in marketing within a broader context of a possible epistemological “crisis” of rationality in practical disciplines. The conclusion suggests that an epistemology of expertise for marketing management demands both theoretical and linguistic sophistication and implies a pedagogic shift towards a model of philosophic enquiry in marketing.
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Séverine Deneulin and Nicholas Townsend
Public economics has recently introduced the concept of global public goods as a new category of public goods whose provision is central for promoting the well‐being of…
Abstract
Purpose
Public economics has recently introduced the concept of global public goods as a new category of public goods whose provision is central for promoting the well‐being of individuals in today's globalized world. The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which introducing this new concept in international development is helpful for understanding human well‐being enhancement.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper considers some implications of the concept of the common good for international development.
Findings
The concept of global public goods could be more effective if the conception of well‐being it assumes is broadened beyond the individual level. “Living well” or the “good life” does not dwell in individual lives only, but also in the lives of the communities which human beings form. A successful provision of global public goods depends on this recognition that the “good life” of the communities that people form is a constitutive component of the “good life” of individual human beings.
Originality/value
The paper suggests that the rediscovery of the concept of the common good, and identification of how to nurture it, constitute one of the major tasks for development theory and policy.
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This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.
Design
This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.
Findings
The study analyses South Korea’s 2016 ministry NHRD budget plans, and finds that the current structure hampers policy effectiveness, encourages redundancy across policies and focuses on short-term solutions.
Originality
The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.
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The traditional capitalist development model with its emphasis upon economic growth has, in the past decade, been severely criticised with respect to its negative effects upon the…
Abstract
The traditional capitalist development model with its emphasis upon economic growth has, in the past decade, been severely criticised with respect to its negative effects upon the poor as well as its negative impact upon women. The first and second development decades not only have failed to achieve “economic take off,” but they also have failed to provide that improvement in the status of women which modernisation is reputed to induce. The push for growth and modernisation in the Third World may have led to a deterioration of the economic position of women as well as a deterioration in the absolute economic situation of at least the poorer third of the population. Furthermore evidence suggests that the poorest of the poor are disproportionately women heads of households and their families. One result of this negative impact of the development process has been a refocus of attention in development policy upon the poor as well as a mandate to integrate women in the development process in the “Percy Amendment” to the Foreign Assistance Act of 1973. Nevertheless this new emphasis upon women‐in‐development suffers from a flaw similar to that of the traditional development model. Each treats the family only in a superficial way: the first because of naive assumptions concerning women in the family, the second by treating women independently of the family constellation.
Bernd Kleimann and Maren Klawitter
Decisions which are based on formally organized evaluation processes are widespread in the academic world. In order to develop a theoretical framework which can be used to…
Abstract
Decisions which are based on formally organized evaluation processes are widespread in the academic world. In order to develop a theoretical framework which can be used to systematically analyze various evaluation-based decision-making procedures, this chapter focuses on the example of appointment procedures for professorships in German universities. Drawing on systems theory, we start with theorizing universities as formal organizations in order to explain how organizational structures generally affect decision-making procedures. Then three dimensions of academic decision-making are introduced – temporal, social, and matter-of-fact – which are the main cornerstones of our analytical framework. By applying this framework to appointment procedures for professorships, different phases can be distinguished (temporal), participants and their interests as well as their influence potentials come into view (social), and different types of criteria for assessing the candidates can be identified (matter-of-fact). The exemplary application of the framework shows its analytical advantages as an adaptable means of investigating a broader array of (academic) evaluation-based decision-making procedures.
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This paper seeks to examine the roles of personality, vocational interests, academic achievement and some socio‐cultural factors in educational aspirations of secondary school…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to examine the roles of personality, vocational interests, academic achievement and some socio‐cultural factors in educational aspirations of secondary school adolescents in southwestern Nigeria.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey research design was adopted. The sample comprised 430 (males = 220, females = 210) secondary school students. Data personality, vocational interests, academic achievement, socio‐cultural factors and educational aspiration were obtained from the students. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used to analyse the data.
Findings
The paper finds that specific personality, interest dimensions, academic achievement, socio‐economic status and demands from extended family were significantly related to the students' educational aspirations.
Research limitations/implications
The cross‐sectional correlational research design does not permit cause‐and‐effect inferences to be made. Use of a single‐item survey to assess educational aspirations may limit the results. Future research may add more items to assess educational aspiration.
Practical implications
The adolescents' personality, vocational interests, academic achievement and socio‐cultural factors should be identified and included in the career counselling process by counselling psychologists.
Originality/value
This research provides basis for the need to consider personality, interests and socio‐cultural factors in addition to cognitive attainment when explaining the adolescents' educational aspirations.
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Cathy Bailey, Julie Doyle, Susan Squires, Cliodhna ni Scanaill, Chie Wei Fan, Cormac Sheehan, Clodagh Cunningham and Ben Dromey
This paper seeks to discuss the authors' experiences of multidisciplinary practice in relation to developing home‐based assisted living technologies.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to discuss the authors' experiences of multidisciplinary practice in relation to developing home‐based assisted living technologies.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws on almost three years' experience of working within an ongoing, large, multi‐sited and multidisciplinary Irish national research programme: the Technology for Independent Living Centre. This involved industry and academic partners. Teams of clinicians, physical and social scientists, technologists, engineers, designers and ethnographers worked with older adults to design, test and deliver, home‐based technologies that focus on mitigating falls, keeping socially connected and maintaining or improving cognitive function. The authors' experiences and challenges are organised and presented through their retrospective team building model: ENDEA and through comparison with team building literature.
Findings
Learning outcomes and implications for technology focused multidisciplinary practice are offered. The paper concludes that a vital step in developing successful assisted living technologies with and for older adults is to spend resources on building effective, creative and committed multidisciplinary teams and practices.
Originality/value
The model, ENDEA, is proposed which is a blueprint for successful outcomes, through the management and delivery of multidisciplinary research.
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