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In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of…
Abstract
In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of material poses problems for the researcher in management studies — and, of course, for the librarian: uncovering what has been written in any one area is not an easy task. This volume aims to help the librarian and the researcher overcome some of the immediate problems of identification of material. It is an annotated bibliography of management, drawing on the wide variety of literature produced by MCB University Press. Over the last four years, MCB University Press has produced an extensive range of books and serial publications covering most of the established and many of the developing areas of management. This volume, in conjunction with Volume I, provides a guide to all the material published so far.
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Victor J. Hanby and Michael P. Jackson
The growing awareness in the past few years of the increasingly acute nature of unemployment levels throughout industrial society has been reflected in the adoption by a variety…
Abstract
The growing awareness in the past few years of the increasingly acute nature of unemployment levels throughout industrial society has been reflected in the adoption by a variety of countries of a number of special work creation schemes for social groups experiencing particular difficulties in finding and sustaining employment. While cynical commentators in individual countries have dismissed in varying degrees such programmes as being essentially synonymous with the special employment measures of the Great Depression, there seems little obvious justification or merit in identifying, for example, Job Creation in Britain with the former Public Works Programme; the Neighbourhood Youth Corps, Emergency Employment Act and the more recent Comprehensive Employment and Training Act in the US with the New Deal Public Relief Acts or the “ArbeitsBeschaffungsMassnahmen” in Germany with the ReichsArbeitDienst. While the new schemes may at their weakest moments reflect a superficial similarity with aspects of such older programmes, there is little doubt that, in the main, job creation measures of whatever type, which have been introduced since the early 1970s, differ in scope, orientation and intention from their traditional public works predecessors. Such an interpretation seems not only to be supported by the fact that countries which introduced such schemes some years ago, are continually updating, revising and refining the structure and conditions of their programme and evaluating their performance in meeting the needs of the client groups but that such early experiences and their subsequent restructurings constitute examples of particular manpower policy initiatives which continue to be followed as operating models for countries newly embarking on programmes of a similar type.
In many countries trade unions faced major problems in the 1970s and 1980s. Total membership declined as did the proportion of the working population unionised. This picture is by…
Abstract
In many countries trade unions faced major problems in the 1970s and 1980s. Total membership declined as did the proportion of the working population unionised. This picture is by no means universal and, as Kelly has argued, if the figures are considered carefully, then the problems may be less significant than often imagined. One of the countries where unions appear to have been able to escape almost unscathed is Canada. They have done so, despite facing many of the problems that have been largely responsible for creating the difficult environment in which unions have had to operate in other countries. In particular, they had to face difficult economic conditions and shifts in the make‐up of the labour force with an increasing emphasis on service sector employment. The apparent success of Canadian unions is even more interesting when it is recalled that over the same period union membership in the USA has declined sharply and to some extent the same unions organise in both the USA and Canada. This paper seeks to examine the recent trends in trade union membership in Canada and reviews possible explanations.
Until recently UK universities have paid little attention to managing the personnel function. However, matters changed in the 1980s, and surveys at the beginning of the 1990s…
Abstract
Until recently UK universities have paid little attention to managing the personnel function. However, matters changed in the 1980s, and surveys at the beginning of the 1990s suggested that all institutions had established personnel departments. Discusses research recently completed in 14 universities. Finds that there is still considerable variation in the conduct of the personnel function, and that the boundaries of the personnel department and the roles played by personnel differ from one institution to the next. Suggests that much more thought remains to be given to the way that responsibility for human resource functions is devolved to heads of departments. Further, it suggests that while greater recognition may have been given to the importance of the human resource function within universities (and that it may be seen to have a more important role in strategic planning) this has not led necessarily to an increasing role for the personnel department as such.
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The increasing scrutiny of universities has led to increasing pressure on heads of department to deliver increased performance. This paper presents 14 case studies from UK…
Abstract
The increasing scrutiny of universities has led to increasing pressure on heads of department to deliver increased performance. This paper presents 14 case studies from UK institutions examining in detail and in context how heads of department manage performance. It establishes that heads of department have often struggled due to a lack of options and possibilities to influence performance and a lack of management training to help them achieve it. The paper concludes that the real problem facing universities in this area arises from the fact that the change in role of head of department has not been thought through but has been a reaction to external pressure, leading to ambiguity and confusion.
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The purpose of this paper is to explore critically the potentially harmful business of professional wrestling in the USA as state-corporate crime.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore critically the potentially harmful business of professional wrestling in the USA as state-corporate crime.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper comprises desk-based research of secondary sources. The lack of official data on the harms experienced by professional wrestlers means that much of the data regarding this is derived from quantitative and qualitative accounts from internet sites dedicated to this issue.
Findings
A major finding is that with regard to the work-related harms experienced by professional wrestlers, the business may not be wholly to be blamed, but nor is it entirely blame free. It proposes that one way the work-related harms can be understood is via an examination of the political economic context of neo-liberalism from the 1980s onwards and subsequent state-corporate actions and inactions.
Practical implications
The paper raises questions about the regulation of the professional wrestling industry together with the misclassification of wrestlers’ worker status (also known as wage theft and tax fraud) and the potential role they play in the harms incurred in this industry.
Social implications
The potential wider social implications of the misclassification of workers are raised.
Originality/value
The originality and value of this paper is the examination of work-related harms within the professional wrestling industry through the lens of state-corporate crime.
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Dion Hoe‐Lian Goh and Chei Sian Lee
Grieving resulting from the death of a loved one or someone familiar is a painful process and individuals invariably seek support to help them through this difficult period. In…
Abstract
Purpose
Grieving resulting from the death of a loved one or someone familiar is a painful process and individuals invariably seek support to help them through this difficult period. In this study, the paper investigates the role microblogs play by exploring the types of messages following the death of a public figure, Michael Jackson, “the King of Pop”.
Design/methodology/approach
Content analysis was conducted using 50,000 tweets harvested from Twitter from the first 12 days after Michael Jackson's death. A coding instrument characterizing a set of categories that users posted about Jackson's death was inductively constructed, and then applied to the entire dataset of tweets.
Findings
About 50 per cent of tweets fell into categories commonly associated with expressions of emotions or thoughts due to death. However, as the single largest category, Twitter was used primarily as a platform for sharing news and other information. Surprisingly, categories not normally associated with grieving, such as spreading of rumours, expressions of hatred and spam, also occupied a high proportion of tweets.
Originality/value
There has been little work done in examining microblogs as platforms for giving and receiving support in general and, more specifically, for the expression of grief. Therefore, the present research is timely, as it seeks to understand the role microblogs play in the grieving process.
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The purpose of this paper is to examine the professional context of the educator and architects who designed and conceived Woodleigh School in Baxter, Victoria, Australia…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the professional context of the educator and architects who designed and conceived Woodleigh School in Baxter, Victoria, Australia (1974-1979) and to identify common design threads in a series of schools designed by Daryl Jackson and Evan Walker in the 1970s.
Design/methodology/approach
The research was derived from academic and professional publications, film footage, interviews, archival searches and site visits. Standard analytical methods in architectural research are employed, including formal, planning and morphological analysis, to read building designs for meaning and intent. Books, people and buildings were examined to piece together the design “biography” of Woodleigh School, the identification of which forms the basis of the paper's argument.
Findings
Themes of loose fit, indeterminate planning, coupled with concepts of classroom as house, and school as town, and engagement with a landscape environment are drawn together under principal Michael Norman's favoured phrase that adolescents might experience “a slice of life”, preparing them for broader engagement with a world and a community outside school. The themes reflect changing aspirations for teenage education in the 1970s, indicating a free and experimental approach to the design of the school environment.
Originality/value
The paper considers, for the first time, the interconnected role of educator and architect as key protagonists in envisioning connections between space and pedagogy in the 1970s alternative school.
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Chei Sian Lee and Dion Hoe‐Lian Goh
Grieving resulting from death is a painful process and individuals invariably seek support to help them through this difficult period. The purpose of this paper is to investigate…
Abstract
Purpose
Grieving resulting from death is a painful process and individuals invariably seek support to help them through this difficult period. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role microblogs play in providing social support following the death of a public figure, Michael Jackson, “the King of Pop”.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 50,000 tweets from the first 12 days after Jackson's death were harvested from Twitter. A content analysis using a coding instrument characterizing a set of social support categories was conducted. Categories not related to social support were also inductively constructed and applied to the tweets.
Findings
Twitter was primarily used for providing informational support, followed by emotional support. Surprisingly, categories not normally associated with grieving, such as spreading of rumours, expressions of hatred, and spam, also occupied a large proportion of tweets.
Practical implications
Results suggest that microblogging has the potential to facilitate the grieving process and in some aspects of social support. However, information quality could be an issue that calls for better information management tools.
Originality/value
There has been little work done in examining microblogs as platforms for grieving in general, and more specifically, for providing social support during bereavement. The present research is timely, as we seek to understand the role microblogs play in the grieving process.
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Michael Buhagiar, Julien Pollack and Sharon Coyle
Scholars are increasingly acknowledging the importance of conversations in the management of complex projects. Defining dialectics as “the art of purposeful conversation”, this…
Abstract
Purpose
Scholars are increasingly acknowledging the importance of conversations in the management of complex projects. Defining dialectics as “the art of purposeful conversation”, this paper aims to rationalise the somewhat disorganised field of dialectics by developing a categoreal scheme.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors refer to the current state of research into the conversational aspects of complex projects, and examine the historical development of, and philosophical and scholarly commentary on, the dialectical method.
Findings
The categories the authors propose are the Socratic, Conversational, Fichtean and Peircean. They differ in relation to the subject matter of the dialectic; their vulnerability to environmental influences; the degree of structure they require for optimal performance; and the situations in which they might most profitably be applied.
Research limitations/implications
A single categoreal scheme is rarely the last word, and the authors invite other scholars to explore the field in a similar way.
Practical implications
The scheme proposed here is intended to enhance the project manager's approach to conversations, by referring to the specific virtues and limitations of each of the categories.
Social implications
The informed use of dialectics may help to ameliorate the significant damage done to organisations and economies around the world by failed and underperforming projects.
Originality/value
The authors present the first categorisation of the field, with the aim of equipping the practitioner to think about dialectical approaches in a more systematic way.
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