Search results
1 – 10 of 182This book is a policy proposal aimed at the democratic left. It is concerned with gradual but radical reform of the socio‐economic system. An integrated policy of industrial and…
Abstract
This book is a policy proposal aimed at the democratic left. It is concerned with gradual but radical reform of the socio‐economic system. An integrated policy of industrial and economic democracy, which centres around the establishment of a new sector of employee‐controlled enterprises, is presented. The proposal would retain the mix‐ed economy, but transform it into a much better “mixture”, with increased employee‐power in all sectors. While there is much of enduring value in our liberal western way of life, gross inequalities of wealth and power persist in our society.
Details
Keywords
Elizabeth C. Thach, Ms Thoraya Halhoul and Jay Robertson
What types of wine business practices have the most impact on employee productivity, leading to profitability? This qualitative study attempts to answer this question based on…
Abstract
What types of wine business practices have the most impact on employee productivity, leading to profitability? This qualitative study attempts to answer this question based on interviews and survey data from 109 winery and vineyard operations across the US. A total of 33 management practices were identified using a qualitative content analysis methodology; including the major categories of management communication, hiring, training, and positive incentive systems. Results suggest areas for future research, as well as simple and cost‐effective management practices which wineries and vineyards can implement now.
Details
Keywords
Claudine Parent, Caroline Robitaille, Marie-Christine Fortin and Anne Avril
Despite the over-representation of stepfamilies in the clientele receiving protective services, there is still very little information about the different forms of the parental…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite the over-representation of stepfamilies in the clientele receiving protective services, there is still very little information about the different forms of the parental commitment of stepfathers in those families. However, the characteristics of families receiving child protective services (CPS) are likely to influence the way that the stepfathers’ commitment is expressed.
Methodology/approach
Taking into account the viewpoint of mothers (n = 10), stepfathers (n = 10), and adolescents (n = 10), this study attempted to document, using the free association method and semistructured interviews, the following: (1) the representations that the members of these stepfamilies had of the stepfathers’ parental commitment; and (2) the way in which engagement was expressed in daily life.
Findings
While the participants agreed that the stepfather had a parental role to play, that is to take care of the children, they did not necessarily agree about which dimensions were the most important. Whereas the adults emphasized the child-rearing dimension of this role and the necessary cooperation with the biological parents, the adolescents insisted on the relational aspect. The results likewise indicated that these men were very committed to their partners’ adolescents and showed that even in families challenged by problems that lead to involvement with CPS, stepfathers can play a positive, supportive role.
Originality/value
This study represents an important addition to the existing literature on the role of stepfathers in that it uses multiple measures and direct reports from father figures allowing us to explore the main dimensions of stepfather commitment.
Details
Keywords
Strategy and leadership guru, Sydney Finkelstein believes that “regenerating the talent pool is the single most important thing that any leader can do” to help his or her…
Abstract
Purpose
Strategy and leadership guru, Sydney Finkelstein believes that “regenerating the talent pool is the single most important thing that any leader can do” to help his or her organization to “survive and prosper.” His new book, Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent (Harvard Business Review Press, 2016), studies “those few individuals” in any given industry who “grow human capital better than anyone else.”
Design/methodology/approach
Strategy & Leadership contributing editor Brian Leavy asks Prof. Finkelstein what can managers learn from these exceptional talent developers that might be more widely emulated?
Findings
According to Prof. Finkelstein, “The superboss playbook is not about being nice or empathic. It’s about giving proteges the motivation, guidance, wisdom, creative licence, and other elements they need to learn and grow”
Practical implications
Prof. Finkelstein notes, “While many businesses today focus on getting closer to the customer, superbosses are very much focused on getting closer to their employees or team members.”
Originality/value
Prof. Finkelstein asserts, “Superbosses have cracked the code on how to make organizations work better by designing a playbook that helps people accomplish more than they ever thought possible in their careers, or their lives. By studying the superbosses and what they do, we now know how genuinely unusual talent comes to populate an organization.?
Details
Keywords
Michael Jay Polonsky, Ahmed Ferdous, Nichola Robertson, Sandra Jones, Andre Renzaho and Joanne Telenta
This study aims to test the efficacy of the awareness of a transformative health service communication intervention targeted to African refugees in Australia, designed to increase…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to test the efficacy of the awareness of a transformative health service communication intervention targeted to African refugees in Australia, designed to increase their intentions to participate in blood donation and reduce any identified barriers.
Design/methodology/approach
Following the intervention launch, a survey was administered to African refugees. The data were analysed with structural equation modelling.
Findings
Intervention awareness increases refugees’ blood donation knowledge and intentions. Although it has no direct effect on refugees’ medical mistrust or perceived discrimination, intervention awareness indirectly reduces medical mistrust. The findings, thus, suggest that the intervention was transformative: it directly and indirectly reduced barriers to refugee participation in blood donation services.
Research limitations/implications
Limitations include a relatively small sample size, single-country context and measures that address blood donation intentions versus behaviours.
Social implications
Addressing health service inequities through intervention awareness, via the mere exposure effect, can facilitate refugees’ health service participation and inclusion.
Originality/value
This study contributes to transformative service research and responds to calls to improve individual and community well-being by testing a transformative intervention targeted towards vulnerable consumers. Not all targeted refugees donated blood, but being encouraged to participate in this health service within the host society can foster their greater inclusion.
Details
Keywords
Nichola Robertson, Yelena Tsarenko, Michael Jay Polonsky and Lisa McQuilken
The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the factors driving and mitigating the experienced vulnerabilities of women undergoing the transformative service of in-vitro…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the factors driving and mitigating the experienced vulnerabilities of women undergoing the transformative service of in-vitro fertilisation (IVF), and how this influences women’s evaluations and intentions.
Design/methodology/approach
The conceptual framework was tested using quantitative data collected via an online survey of Australian women who have undergone IVF treatment. Hayes’ PROCESS macro was used to analyse the data.
Findings
The results indicate that women’s persistent goal-striving alongside their perceived personal sacrifices influence the association between their need for parenthood and their experienced vulnerability. Institutional factors such as IVF clinic technical and interpersonal quality influence these consumers’ IVF experience evaluations and word-of-mouth (WoM) intentions.
Research limitations/implications
This study’s results are limited to women who are undergoing IVF treatment. Further empirical work is needed to deepen the understanding of the role played by partners and other family members in women’s IVF experiences.
Practical implications
IVF clinics can reduce women’s experienced vulnerability by encouraging women who have a good probability of succeeding to persist in the pursuit of the goal of conceiving a child via IVF. This can be achieved by enabling and empowering them so that they give themselves the best chance during treatment, thus facilitating their control. Managing the expectations of those women with a lower probability of success is also recommended. The importance of the technical and interpersonal quality delivered by IVF clinics in influencing the positive evaluations and behavioural intentions of women experiencing vulnerabilities is further highlighted.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the transformative service research literature by: examining the IVF transformative experience, which has been largely overlooked; focussing on the intersection of transformative services and consumers experiencing vulnerability, which is an emerging research area; and testing a framework quantitatively that intermingles individual and institutional factors as antecedents and consequences of consumers’ experienced vulnerabilities, advancing the existing conceptual and qualitative work.
Details
Keywords
The production of the ‘good life’ or the ‘less bad-life’ (Berlant, 2007, 2011), especially among generations of the Marcos dictatorship and the Epifanio de los Santos Avenue…
Abstract
The production of the ‘good life’ or the ‘less bad-life’ (Berlant, 2007, 2011), especially among generations of the Marcos dictatorship and the Epifanio de los Santos Avenue revolutions (henceforth, EDSA revolutions) in the Philippines, is animated by the ‘mobility imperative’ (Farrugia, 2016). The mobility imperative includes processes that encourage or demand mobility (Farrugia, 2016) for individuals and institutions. It figures in various ‘systems of practice’ (Levitt, 1998, 2001) among families in migrant-sending communities, government and corporations that magnify how migration is the ticket to better life (McKay, 2012) or its glorification as a heroic act (de los Reyes, 2013, 2014). Among the generations of the Martial Law and the EDSA revolutions, therefore, the ‘good life’ is hinged upon departure as professionals (e.g. nurses and engineers), workers in elementary occupations (e.g. construction and domestic workers) or mail-order brides or pen pals. Put simply, the good life in these generations is a function of remittances.
This chapter examines how the contemporary generation of young people construct the ‘good life’ in differential and new terms (de los Reyes, 2023; McKay & Brady, 2005) from previous generations. Using interviews and vision boards of left-behind children (15–18 years old), it argues that left-behind children critically appraise the ‘mobility imperative’. The chapter shows that there is a growing imagination of alternatives to the migration-induced good life among left-behind children, and therefore, they gradually refuse the ‘mobility imperative’. For them, the aspired good life consists of potentially being employees or entrepreneurs in their own villages and living a life with their own families (de los Reyes, 2019, 2020).
Details
Keywords
Jay M. Shuttleworth and Scott Wylie
The purpose of this paper is to discuss opportunities to analyze religious position statements calling climate change action a moral imperative.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss opportunities to analyze religious position statements calling climate change action a moral imperative.
Design/methodology/approach
In a lesson suited for the secondary history classroom, students will analyze how religious leaders, theologians and ecological and religious academics use passages from sacred texts to establish a moral urgency to mitigate climate change.
Findings
After analyzing these interpretations of sacred writings from five global faiths (Hinduism, Judaism, Catholicism, Islam and Anglicanism), the lesson centers on a dialogical question, “How might climate change action be influenced by religious texts?”
Originality/value
Implications emphasize why social studies teachers should not teach climate change as a controversial issue.
Details
Keywords
Ramkrishnan (Ram) V. Tenkasi and Lu Zhang
Organizational Development and Change (ODC) has been called to aid organizational greening goals. Carbon labeling of products by organizations is a common greening strategy…
Abstract
Organizational Development and Change (ODC) has been called to aid organizational greening goals. Carbon labeling of products by organizations is a common greening strategy. However, its effectiveness is dependent on supportive consumer behavior. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) is used to explain actor choice in buying low carbon products (LCPs). Actual buying behavior of 873 subjects in China, a country new to carbon labeling, demonstrated that Declarative norms, Attitude, and Perceived behavioral control explained significant variance in actual buying behavior of LCPs. The TPB model may be better served by observing actual behavior versus behavioral intention. Revisions to the TPB model for diagnosis and interventions in behavioral change are indicated. ODC should revert to theoretically informed practice versus the increasing reliance on A-theoretical tools and techniques.
Details