Search results

1 – 10 of over 12000
Article
Publication date: 6 June 2016

Catherine Manathunga

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the diverse rendering of the idea of nation and the role of universities in nation-building in the 1950s Murray and Hughes Parry Reports

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the diverse rendering of the idea of nation and the role of universities in nation-building in the 1950s Murray and Hughes Parry Reports in Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand. This paper provides trans-Tasman comparisons that reflect the different national and international interests, positioning of science and the humanities and desired academic and student subject positions and power relations.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper adopts a Foucauldian genealogical approach that is informed by Wodak’s (2011) historical discourse analysis in order to analyse the reports’ discursive constructions of the national role of universities, the positioning of science and humanities and the development of desired academics and student subjectivities and power relations.

Findings

The analysis reveals the different positioning of Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand in relation to the Empire and the Cold War. It also demonstrates how Australian national interests were represented in these reports as largely economic and defence related, while Aotearoa/New Zealand national interests were about economic, social and cultural nation-building. These differences were also matched by diverse weightings attached to university science and the humanities education. There is also a hailing of traditional, enlightenment-inspired discourses about desired academic and student subjectivities and power relations in Australia that contrasts with the emergence of early traces of more contemporary discourses about equity and diversity in universities in Aotearoa/New Zealand.

Originality/value

The paper demonstrates the value of transnational analysis in contributing to historiography about university education. The Foucauldian discourse analysis approach extends existing Australian historiography about universities during this period and represents a key contribution to Aotearoa/New Zealand historiography that has explored academic and student subjectivities to a lesser extent.

Details

History of Education Review, vol. 45 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0819-8691

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 April 2001

Janet R. McColl‐Kennedy and Richard E. Fetter

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of involvement on consumers’ external search activities across several service settings. Two of the services were…

3026

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of involvement on consumers’ external search activities across several service settings. Two of the services were credence services (life insurance and furnace overhaul) and two services were experiential services (exercise club and Caribbean vacation). Involvement was measured with a two‐dimensional nine‐item scale, the dimensions being importance and involvement. External search was assessed using a seven‐item two‐dimensional scale, source and effort in search. Self‐administered surveys were completed by 331 residents of a major Midwestern US city. The results indicate that, across all four services, involvement does indeed influence consumers’ propensity to search externally. Finally, the implications of the findings for marketing managers are discussed.

Details

Journal of Services Marketing, vol. 15 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0887-6045

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 November 2022

Md Moazzem Hossain, Tarek Rana, Shamsun Nahar, Md Jahidur Rahman and Aklema Choudhury Lema

The purpose of this study is to explore the sustainability reporting of a public sector organisation (PSO). This study focuses on socio-environmental practices of a major…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to explore the sustainability reporting of a public sector organisation (PSO). This study focuses on socio-environmental practices of a major agro-economic platform in Australia – the Murray–Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) to provide a unique perspective on water resource management and sustainability.

Design/methodology/approach

This longitudinal qualitative case study collects published data from the MDBA’s annual reports over 21 years (1998–2018) and considers economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainability using legitimacy and institutional theory.

Findings

This study finds that the MDBA’s sustainability reporting is influenced by its response to the Water Act 2007 and the Basin Plan 2012 regulations and to maintain its legitimacy with stakeholders. The MDBA wished to pursue sustainability through integrating these regulations complemented by stakeholder expectations. Although all categories increased in reporting, the environment category has the highest primacy in achieving a healthy basin through sustainable water management for the long-term benefit of the stakeholders.

Research limitations/implications

This study contributes to the PSOs sustainability reporting literature. Particularly, this study provides insights of sustainability reporting patterns and practices over a long period through a longitudinal study. This study contributes new knowledge on the awareness of PSOs sustainability practice which has implications for governments, regulators, policymakers, managers and other stakeholders.

Originality/value

The Australian PSOs setting is under-researched from the perspective of a regulatory framework. The MDBA case provides unique insights on water resource management and sustainability which has value for many countries around the world.

Details

Meditari Accountancy Research, vol. 31 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2049-372X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 February 2017

Md Moazzem Hossain

This paper aims to respond to recent calls by Jones (2014) and Jones and Solomon (Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 2013) for more studies on biodiversity accounting…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to respond to recent calls by Jones (2014) and Jones and Solomon (Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 2013) for more studies on biodiversity accounting and reporting. In particular, this paper explores biodiversity reporting of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA), an Australian public sector enterprise.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper uses content analysis of MDBA’s published annual reports over the period of 15 years (1998-2012). Archival data (from different government departments) are also used to prepare natural inventory model.

Findings

The paper finds that although specific species, such as flora and fauna, and habitats-related disclosures have increased over the time, such information still allows only a partial construction of an inventory of natural assets, using Jones’ (1996, 2003) model. However, unlike prior studies that find lack of data availability to be the main impediment for operationalising biodiversity accounting, the abundance of biodiversity data in Australia makes it comparatively easier to produce such a statement.

Research limitations/implications

Informed by the environmental stewardship framework, the results of this paper suggest that the disclosures made by MDBA are constrained potentially due to its use of traditional accounting mechanisms of reporting that only allow tradable items to be reported to stakeholders. An alternative reporting format would be more relevant to stakeholder groups who are more interested in information regarding quality and availability of water, and loss of biodiversity in the basin area rather than the financial performance of the MDBA.

Originality/value

Although there are a growing number of studies exploring biodiversity reporting in Australia, this paper is one of the earlier attempts to operationalise biodiversity (particularly habitats, flora and fauna) within the context of an Australian public sector enterprise.

Details

Pacific Accounting Review, vol. 29 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0114-0582

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 24 June 2010

Hannah Forsyth

When James Conant visited Australia in 1951 he unwittingly entered an existing, lengthy debate about the value of university‐based knowledge in Australia. The Second World War…

Abstract

When James Conant visited Australia in 1951 he unwittingly entered an existing, lengthy debate about the value of university‐based knowledge in Australia. The Second World War, with its significant reliance on academic expertise, had suggested that if knowledge could win wars, the labour of academic staff could be considered to normally have social and economic value to the nation. In 1951 Conant had no way of foreseeing that steps made, in this light, at Federal level during and after the war, would culminate in the 1957 Review of Universities in Australia, chaired by Sir Keith Murray, and the injection of a large amount of funding into the university system. Conant’s confidential report to the Carnegie Corporation does show that he saw the system in desperate need of funding, which wasa reality that everyone agreed upon.1 The long debate included options for university funding and the potential change to the character of universities if the community, rather than the cloister, was to determine the purpose and character of knowledge. Conant’s report reflects this debate, centring (as many other participants did as well) on the value universities would gain if they were more obviously useful and relevant to industry and if their reputation was less stained by elitism and arrogance. Conant could not gather sufficient data in his visit to identify the nuances of this long discussion nor could he see the depth and spread of its influence over the decade or so preceding his visit. As a result, his particular agenda seems to obscure the perception of the threat that change provoked to some of the traditional values associated with academic work. To consider the debate and the character of academic work in the university scene that Conant fleetingly visited, we need to look back just a few years to another, but very different, visitor to the Australian system.

Details

History of Education Review, vol. 39 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0819-8691

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 30 May 2018

Andrew M. Jones, Nigel Rice and Silvana Robone

Anchoring vignettes have become a popular method to adjust self-assessed data for systematic differences in reporting behaviour to aid comparability, for example, of cross-country…

Abstract

Anchoring vignettes have become a popular method to adjust self-assessed data for systematic differences in reporting behaviour to aid comparability, for example, of cross-country analyses. The method relies on the two fundamental assumptions of response consistency and vignette equivalence. Evidence on the validity of these assumptions is equivocal. This chapter considers the utility of the vignette approach by considering how successful the method is in moving self-assessed reports of health mobility towards objective counterparts. We draw on data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) and undertake pairwise country comparisons of cumulative distributions of self-reports, their objective counterparts and vignette adjusted reports. Comparison of distributions is based on tests for stochastic dominance. Multiple cross-country comparisons are undertaken to assess the consistency of results across contexts and settings. Both non-parametric and parametric approaches to vignette adjustment are considered. In general, we find the anchoring vignette methodology poorly reconciles self-reported data with objective counterparts.

Article
Publication date: 5 June 2017

Hannah Forsyth

The purpose of this paper is to consider the national and international political-economic environment in which Australian university research grew. It considers the implications…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to consider the national and international political-economic environment in which Australian university research grew. It considers the implications of the growing significance of knowledge to the government and capital, looking past institutional developments to also historicise the systems that fed and were fed by the universities.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper is based on the extensive archival research in the National Archives of Australia and the Australian War Memorial on the formation and funding of a wide range of research programmes in the immediate post-war period after the Second World War. These include the Australian Atomic Energy Commission, the NHMRC, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, the Australian Pacific Territories Research Council, the Commonwealth Office of Education, the Universities Commission and the Murray review. This research was conducted under the Margaret George Award for emerging scholars for a project entitled “Knowledge, Nation and Democracy in Post-War Australia”.

Findings

After the Second World War, the Australian Government invested heavily in research: funding that continued to expand in subsequent decades. In the USA, similar government expenditure affected the trajectory of capitalist democracy for the remainder of the twentieth century, leading to a “military-industrial complex”. The outcome in Australia looked quite different, though still connected to the structure and character of Australian political economics.

Originality/value

The discussion of the spectacular growth of universities after the Second World War ordinarily rests on the growth in enrolments. This paper draws on a very large literature review as well as primary research to offer new insights into the connections between research and post-war political and economic development, which also explain university growth.

Details

History of Education Review, vol. 46 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0819-8691

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 September 2011

The purpose of this paper is to review the strategic gains available to a library director under budget stress, using a combination of partnerships and service innovations.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to review the strategic gains available to a library director under budget stress, using a combination of partnerships and service innovations.

Design/methodology/approach

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and recommendation.

Findings

Some see a glass half full; others see a glass half empty. This case study shows how to seize strategic advantage from a depleted budget, and win friends at the same time. It seems impossible to contemplate funding the building of a new library, but at Murray State University (MSU) this was done. The planning of a “learning commons” included all the stakeholders. A marketing campaign accompanied by strategically important alliances swayed the Regents. These alliances firmly fix the library at the center of MSU's strategy.

Practical implications

The review highlights the specific actions and strategic moves that a librarian can initiate to transform the library's strategic position.

Social implications

Library users will benefit from better service levels and wider accessibility using remote access and other new features.

Originality/value

This review reveals in a few sentences exactly what Murray achieved, and how it was done, so the busy manager can decide its relevance

Article
Publication date: 1 January 1964

S.A. RAYNER

Simon, in his Administrative Behavior presents a systematic theory of administration which emphasizes correct decision‐making. Decision‐making has a factual and an ethical…

Abstract

Simon, in his Administrative Behavior presents a systematic theory of administration which emphasizes correct decision‐making. Decision‐making has a factual and an ethical content; it always requires the comparison of alternative means in terms of the likely consequences. Thus a policy‐making body must have ready access to advice and information, particularly on the consequences of alternatives. Some universities in Britain, U.S.A. and Australia have set out deliberately to formulate their values or ultimate objectives. In Australia the publication of the Murray Report and of the reports of the Universities Commission have made much more likely the formulation of a set of values acceptable to university administrators as a guide for decision‐making. Further, a beginning has been made in the collation of factual data which might bear on these values, for example in the area of staff‐student ratios. With the general acceptance of computers and offices of institutional research there is a greater likelihood of clarifying objectives and of testing the extent to which they are being met, as a guide to effective decision‐making.

Details

Journal of Educational Administration, vol. 2 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-8234

Article
Publication date: 16 March 2012

Carole Sutton, Lynne Murray and Vivette Glover

This paper aims to update the chapter by Sutton and Murray in Support from the Start by providing an overview of: research linking the development and experiences of infants and…

655

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to update the chapter by Sutton and Murray in Support from the Start by providing an overview of: research linking the development and experiences of infants and toddlers with the risks of later antisocial behaviour; and evidence on effective interventions for children aged 0‐2 and their families.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors give a narrative review on the effects on mothers and their babies of postnatal depression.

Findings

The review examines the effects on mothers and their babies of postnatal depression, impaired bonding, insecure attachment as well as the impact of maltreatment in childhood. It considers a number of evidence‐based preventive interventions implemented in the UK to help children aged 0‐2 and their parents.

Originality/value

The paper provides an overview of recent evidence for the factors contributing to difficulties for parents of young children and identifies interventions demonstrated in high‐quality studies to prevent or address these problems.

Details

Journal of Children's Services, vol. 7 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-6660

Keywords

1 – 10 of over 12000