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– The purpose of this paper is to explore the foundation and development of public relations education (PRE) in Australia between 1950 and 1975.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the foundation and development of public relations education (PRE) in Australia between 1950 and 1975.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper utilises Australian-held primary and official industry association material to present a detailed and revisionist history of PR education in Australia in its foundation decades.
Findings
This paper, which locates Australia's first PRE initiatives in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide in the 1960s, contests the only published account of PR education history by Potts (1976). The orthodox account, which has been repeated uncritically by later writers, overlooks earlier initiatives, such as the Melbourne-based Public Relations Institute of Australia, whose persistence resulted in Australia's first PR course at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in 1964. So too, educational initiatives in Adelaide and Sydney pre-date the traditional historiography.
Originality/value
A detailed literature review suggests this paper represents the only journal-length piece on the history of PRE in Australia. It is also the first examination of relationships between industry, professional institutes, and educational authorities.
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Isao T Matsumoto, John Stapleton, Jacqueline Glass and Tony Thorpe
As we move into a knowledge economy, employee skills are fast becoming an organization’s most valuable asset. Fundamental to successfully completing the complex range of tasks…
Abstract
As we move into a knowledge economy, employee skills are fast becoming an organization’s most valuable asset. Fundamental to successfully completing the complex range of tasks presented by construction projects is bringing together individuals with the correct balance of skills. No one individual has the complete set of skills to do everything themselves, which makes the team only as strong as its weakest link. Sponsored by a leading UK‐based engineering design consultancy, a specification for a technologically driven skills management system was developed. It allowed the organization, its teams and the employees, to better measure, manage and develop their skill capabilities effectively. Key issues addressed by the paper include how skill ability can be measured, how skills can be structured, and how these measurements and structure can be combined to generate skills reports. The development of a prototype application, based on the above mentioned specification, tested the validity of the specification, and demonstrated to the sponsor the benefits that can be achieved by a systematic and practical approach to capturing, reviewing, planning and managing employee skills. It also highlighted the important business rationale for using such systems.
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Isao T Matsumoto, John Stapleton, Jacqueline Glass and Tony Thorpe
Process mapping can lead to a more holistic understanding of how an organisation works. This paper seeks to discuss how an engineering design consultancy, which had developed a…
Abstract
Purpose
Process mapping can lead to a more holistic understanding of how an organisation works. This paper seeks to discuss how an engineering design consultancy, which had developed a series of process maps on the design of steel frame buildings, developed a powerful management tool, the Management Briefing Sheet which has yielded numerous additional benefits enabling practice to be improved and quality procedures more easily accessed.
Design/methodology/approach
To maximise the knowledge and expertise of its supply chain partners and to better understand how it designed steel‐framed buildings, the engineering design consultancy undertook a process‐mapping exercise. Various techniques for documenting the process were considered, but a modified IDEF notation was chosen for its ability to capture the iterative nature of the design process and its methodical approach for deconstructing complicated activities.
Findings
Process‐mapping exercises can change the way organisations work and make them more efficient, but to do this the changes that would lead to improvements need to be implemented successfully. Carrying out a process‐mapping exercise in isolation from the end‐user can lead to complications.
Research limitations/implications
The key obstacle to implementing change identified by the engineering design consultancy, with whom the MBS was developed, was delivering the knowledge acquired from the process analysis in a format that end‐users could understand easily and adopt effectively.
Originality/value
This article will be of significant use to any organisation wishing to maximise the knowledge and expertise of its supply chain partners and identify inefficient working practices.
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Isao T. Matsumoto, John Stapleton, Jacqueline Glass and Tony Thorpe
Organisations must continually innovate to remain competitive. A by‐product of innovation is new knowledge. In a knowledge economy, an organisation's ability to manage its…
Abstract
Purpose
Organisations must continually innovate to remain competitive. A by‐product of innovation is new knowledge. In a knowledge economy, an organisation's ability to manage its knowledge can mean the difference between commercial success and failure. A key aspect of being able to manage knowledge is the ability to identify and capture it. This paper aims to present the development of the knowledge‐capture report (KCR) and the results of its use at the third TeamWork demonstration event for collaborative working.
Design/methodology/approach
Quantifying the number of discrete pieces of knowledge captured in the KCR and categorising the type and quantity of knowledge captured demonstrate the practicality and effectiveness of the KCR in a dynamic multidisciplinary design team environment.
Findings
The different approaches that were observed and adopted by the participants using the KCR highlight a number of key issues that need to be considered when attempting to capture knowledge in a constantly evolving design environment.
Originality/value
The use of the KCR by a wide range of industry practitioners demonstrates a quick, effective and low‐cost approach to capturing project knowledge and events. It could be adopted easily by the engineering and construction (AEC) industry as an entry point to managing knowledge, particularly in complex, multi‐disciplinary design environments.
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OF old the public library was wont to take its reputation from the character of the newsroom. That room, as everyone knows, attracts every element in the community and it may be…
Abstract
OF old the public library was wont to take its reputation from the character of the newsroom. That room, as everyone knows, attracts every element in the community and it may be it attracts especially the poorer elements;—even at times undesirable ones. These people in some towns, but perhaps not so often now‐a‐days, have been unwashen and often not very attractive in appearance. It was natural, things being as they are, that the room should give a certain tone to the institution, and indeed on occasion cause it to be avoided by those who thought themselves to be superior. The whole level of living has altered, and we think has been raised, since the War. There is poverty and depression in parts of the country, it is true; but there are relief measures now which did not exist before the War. Only those who remember the grinding poverty of the unemployed in the days, especially the winter days, before the War can realise what poverty really means at its worst. This democratic levelling up applies, of course, to the public library as much as to any institution. At present it may be said that the part of the library which is most apparent to the public and by which it is usually judged, is the lending or home‐reading department. It therefore needs no apology if from time to time we give special attention to this department. Even in the great cities, which have always concentrated their chief attention upon their reference library, to‐day there is an attempt to supply a lending library service of adequate character. We recall, for example, that the Leeds Public Library of old was first and foremost a reference library, with a lending library attached; to‐day the lending library is one of the busiest in the kingdom. A similar judgment can be passed upon Sheffield, where quite deliberately the city librarian would restrict the reference library to works that are of real reference character, and would develop more fully the lending library. In Manchester, too, the new “Reference Library”—properly the new Central Library—has a lending library which issues about 1,500 volumes daily. There must be all over the country many libraries issuing up to a thousand volumes each a day from their central lending departments. This being the case the department comes in for very careful scrutiny.
This essay considers educational administration in developmental terms and incorporates concern for culture and political ethics. It argues the need for theory of a different…
Abstract
This essay considers educational administration in developmental terms and incorporates concern for culture and political ethics. It argues the need for theory of a different kind: partly empirical and partly moral; partly sympathetic and partly critical; and always concerned with the accomplishment, through deliberation, practice and the just use of power, of the best traditions of the culture in which it is located.
The purpose of this article is to present an empirical analysis of complex sample data with regard to the biasing effect of non‐independence of observations on standard error…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to present an empirical analysis of complex sample data with regard to the biasing effect of non‐independence of observations on standard error parameter estimates. Using field data structured in the form of repeated measurements it is to be shown, in a two‐factor confirmatory factor analysis model, how the bias in SE can be derived when the non‐independence is ignored.
Design/methodology/approach
Three estimation procedures are compared: normal asymptotic theory (maximum likelihood); non‐parametric standard error estimation (naïve bootstrap); and sandwich (robust covariance matrix) estimation (pseudo‐maximum likelihood).
Findings
The study reveals that, when using either normal asymptotic theory or non‐parametric standard error estimation, the SE bias produced by the non‐independence of observations can be noteworthy.
Research limitations/implications
Considering the methodological constraints in employing field data, the three analyses examined must be interpreted independently and as a result taxonomic generalisations are limited. However, the study still provides “case study” evidence suggesting the existence of the relationship between non‐independence of observations and standard error bias estimates.
Originality/value
Given the increasing popularity of structural equation models in the social sciences and in particular in the marketing discipline, the paper provides a theoretical and practical insight into how to treat repeated measures and clustered data in general, adding to previous methodological research. Some conclusions and suggestions for researchers who make use of partial least squares modelling are also drawn.
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Asbjorn Osland, Howard Feldman, George Campbell and William Barnes
John Caldwell, president of Kio-Tek (KT), presents his company's business plan to a group of 30 venture capitalists at the November 2001 annual meeting of the Portland Venture…
Abstract
John Caldwell, president of Kio-Tek (KT), presents his company's business plan to a group of 30 venture capitalists at the November 2001 annual meeting of the Portland Venture Group. John's presentation is included in the case as an exhibit. The case begins with a brief overview of the meeting and John's presentation. The body of the case describes the question and answer period immediately following John's presentation.
Included in the case is a set of exhibits that John has handed out to the audience as supplemental information. These exhibits provide additional information on marketing, management, and financial issues facing the company and John refers to them throughout the question and answer period. The VC's ask John a variety of questions in an effort to determine whether KT is an attractive investment opportunity
Emile Tompa, Amirabbas Mofidi, Arif Jetha, Pamela Lahey and Alexis Buettgen
To develop a framework for estimating the economic benefits of an accessible and inclusive society and implement it for the Canadian context. The framework measures the gap…
Abstract
Purpose
To develop a framework for estimating the economic benefits of an accessible and inclusive society and implement it for the Canadian context. The framework measures the gap between the current situation in terms of accessibility and inclusiveness, and a counterfactual scenario of a fully accessible and inclusive society.
Design/methodology/approach
The method consists of three steps. First, the conceptual framework was developed based on a literature review and expert knowledge. Second, the magnitudes for each domain of the framework was estimated for the reference year 2017 using data from various sources. Third, several sensitivity analyses were run using different assumptions and scenarios.
Findings
It was estimated that moving to a fully accessible and inclusive society would create a value of $337.7bn (with a range of $252.8–$422.7bn) for Canadian society in the reference year of 2017. This is a sizeable proportion of gross domestic product (17.6%, with a range of 13.1–22.0%) and is likely a conservative estimate of the potential benefits.
Originality/value
Understanding the magnitude of the economic benefits of an accessible and inclusive society can be extremely useful for governments, disability advocates and industry leaders as it provides invaluable information on the benefits of efforts, such as legislation, policies, programs and practices, to improve accessibility and inclusion of persons with disabilities. Furthermore, the total economic benefits and the benefits per person with a disability can serve as inputs in economic evaluations and impact assessments.
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