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Case study
Publication date: 20 January 2017

James B. Shein

The case opens with Martha Stewart's 2005 release from prison following her conviction for obstructing an insider-trading investigation of her 2001 sale of personal stock. The…

Abstract

The case opens with Martha Stewart's 2005 release from prison following her conviction for obstructing an insider-trading investigation of her 2001 sale of personal stock. The scandal dealt a crippling blow to the powerful Martha Stewart brand and drove results at her namesake company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSO), deep into the red. But as owner of more than 90 percent of MSO's voting shares, Stewart continued to control the company throughout the scandal.

The company faced significant external challenges, including changing consumer preferences and mounting competition in all of its markets. Ad rates were under pressure as advertisers began fragmenting spending across multiple platforms, including the Internet and social media, where MSO was weak. New competitors were luring readers from MSO's flagship publication, Martha Stewart Living. And in its second biggest business, merchandising, retailing juggernauts such as Walmart and Target were crushing MSO's most important sales channel, Kmart. Internal challenges loomed even larger, with numerous failures of governance while the company attempted a turnaround.

This case can be used to teach either corporate governance or turnarounds.

Students will learn:

  • How control of shareholder voting rights by a founding executive can undermine corporate governance

  • The importance of independent directors and board committees

  • How company bylaws affect corporate governance

  • How to recognize and respond to early signs of stagnation

  • How to avoid management actions that can make a crisis worse

  • How weaknesses in executive leadership can push a company into crisis and foster a culture that actively prevents strategic revitalization

How control of shareholder voting rights by a founding executive can undermine corporate governance

The importance of independent directors and board committees

How company bylaws affect corporate governance

How to recognize and respond to early signs of stagnation

How to avoid management actions that can make a crisis worse

How weaknesses in executive leadership can push a company into crisis and foster a culture that actively prevents strategic revitalization

Abstract

Details

Politics and the Life Sciences: The State of the Discipline
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78441-108-4

Article
Publication date: 1 February 1973

Interviewed by Peter Wilby

If one wanted a convenient and unoriginal label to describe Mr Roy Hattersley, Labour's new education spokesman, one could classify him as a whizz‐kid. He is young (just 40)…

Abstract

If one wanted a convenient and unoriginal label to describe Mr Roy Hattersley, Labour's new education spokesman, one could classify him as a whizz‐kid. He is young (just 40), bright, ambitious, full of ideas and anxious to get things done. He is a brilliant Parliamentary performer. He is tipped as a future Prime Minister and, therefore, has political weight. Edward Short, Michael Stewart, Patrick Gordon Walker — none of these worthy people, for reasons that we need not labour, could be described as whizz‐kids. Sir Edward Boyle of course, was young (39 when he became Minister of Education in 1962), bright and full of ideas. But he was not ambitious and did not have the professional politician's killer‐instinct. Mrs Thatcher, it is true, has many whizz‐kid qualities and she is certainly ambitious; but she is a woman and, in the Tory Party, it is still not acceptable for a woman to display such things too publicly.

Details

Education + Training, vol. 15 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0040-0912

Book part
Publication date: 8 August 2023

Amy Bass

In 2020, Sports Illustrated proclaimed its “Sportsperson of the Year” as something dubbed “the activist athlete,” choosing five athletes – LeBron James, Breanna Stewart, Patrick…

Abstract

In 2020, Sports Illustrated proclaimed its “Sportsperson of the Year” as something dubbed “the activist athlete,” choosing five athletes – LeBron James, Breanna Stewart, Patrick Mahomes, Naomi Osaka, and Laurent Duvernay-Tardif – that represented the term. Like so many athletes who came before them, these athletes vividly demonstrate the potential of sport to shine a spotlight on critical issues in society, yet again solidifying how sport does not exist merely as some kind of escape, but is a major stakeholder in global campaigns for social justice.

This chapter historicizes the contemporary resurgence of athlete activism, largely connected to the reawakening of Black Lives Matters (BLM) in 2020, within what journalist Howard Bryant has called The Heritage, with athletes who acknowledge and accept the charge to use their spotlights for those who have none. From the turning point of the Mexico City Olympics in 1968, which saw collective movements of African-American athletes culminate in the powerful Black power protest by Tommie Smith and John Carlos, a protest that built upon the legacies of so many, to the ongoing debates that surround the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) Rule 50, athletes have long understood how sport serves not only as an integral part of society but also as an agent for change. Contemporary cries for athletes to “shut up and dribble” echo past claims that sport takes place on a level playing field that transcends politics. The history of sports demonstrates otherwise, as athletes embody every imaginable, intersectional, classification of political actor.

Abstract

Details

Politics and the Life Sciences: The State of the Discipline
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78441-108-4

Content available
Book part
Publication date: 21 October 2014

Abstract

Details

Politics and the Life Sciences: The State of the Discipline
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78441-108-4

Article
Publication date: 1 May 1999

Allyson Carlyle

This paper examines a user categorisation of documents related to a particular literary work. Fifty study participants completed an unconstrained sorting task of documents related…

Abstract

This paper examines a user categorisation of documents related to a particular literary work. Fifty study participants completed an unconstrained sorting task of documents related to Charles Dickens’ A Christmas carol. After they had finished the sorting task, participants wrote descriptions of the attributes they used to create each group. Content analysis of these descriptions revealed categories of attributes used for grouping. Participants used physical format, audience, content description, pictorial elements, usage, and language most frequently for grouping. Many of the attributes participants used for grouping already exist in bibliographic records and may be used to cluster records related to works automatically in online catalogue displays. The attributes used by people in classifying or grouping documents related to a work may be used to guide the design of summary online catalogue work displays.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 55 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 August 2012

Kathryn Mackay, Mary Notman, Justin McNicholl, Diane Fraser, Claire McLaughlan and Sylvia Rossi

This article seeks to explore the difference that adult support and protection legislation may have made to work with adults at risk of harm in Scotland.

1655

Abstract

Purpose

This article seeks to explore the difference that adult support and protection legislation may have made to work with adults at risk of harm in Scotland.

Design/methodology/approach

The article is based upon findings of a joint academic and practitioner qualitative research project that interviewed 29 social service practitioners across three local authorities.

Findings

The legislation was seen as positive, giving greater attention to adults at risk. Views about the actual difference it made to the practitioners' practice varied, and were more likely in new rather than ongoing work. Three differences were noted: duties of investigation, protection orders and improved shared responsibility within the local authority and across other agencies, but to a lesser extent NHS staff. Overall it gave effective responses, more quickly for the adults at risk. Whilst the law brought greater clarity of role, there were tensions for practitioners in balancing an adult's right to autonomy with practitioners' safeguarding responsibilities.

Originality/value

The paper demonstrates that a dedicated law can improve safeguarding practice by clarifying the role of social work practitioners and the responsibilities of other agencies. The right to request access to records and banning orders were seen as valuable new measures in safeguarding adults at risk. As such the study from the first UK country to use dedicated adult safeguarding law offers a valuable insight for policy makers, professionals and campaign groups from other countries, which might be considering similar action.

Details

The Journal of Adult Protection, vol. 14 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1466-8203

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 21 October 2014

Abstract

Details

Politics and the Life Sciences: The State of the Discipline
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78441-108-4

Content available
Book part
Publication date: 25 September 2013

Abstract

Details

The world of biology and politics: Organization and research areas
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78190-728-3

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