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1 – 10 of over 23000Stephen B. Gordon, Stanley D. Zemansky and Alex Sekwat
This article revisits two vital questions largely ignored in the scholarly literature devoted to professionalism in government. First, is the public purchaser a professional? And…
Abstract
This article revisits two vital questions largely ignored in the scholarly literature devoted to professionalism in government. First, is the public purchaser a professional? And second, is public purchasing a profession? Our reexamination of the first question led us to conclude that a public purchaser that meets certain requirements in government purchasing practices distinct from traits reserved for recognized traditional professions such as law, medicine and clergy can be a professional. Furthermore, when we analyzed the basic criteria that characterized a profession such as the existence of esoteric knowledge, rigorous formal training, codes of ethics, representative association, autonomy in practice, and criteria for admission into the occupation, we concluded that public purchasing is a profession.
David M. Brock and Michael J. Powell
This paper seeks to explore and explain the dramatic organizational changes that took place over a relatively short time period in the five largest global professional networks…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to explore and explain the dramatic organizational changes that took place over a relatively short time period in the five largest global professional networks, or GPNs – a group of organizations that were originally global accounting firms and traditionally accustomed to relatively gradual change.
Design/methodology/approach
Begins by describing the background of divestiture and diversification in GPNs. The data were collected from the firms' web sites, interviews with GPN managers, e‐mail requests for information via Big Five web sites, and from reports in the newspapers and business press over the two‐year period to June 2001. Uses neo‐institutional theory to study the context, precipitating dynamics, and enabling dynamics of large‐scale organizational change, including the part played by governmental and regulatory forces.
Findings
Explains the extent to which changes have occurred in a sample of countries in which these organizations operate, noting that the firm effects seem to be stronger than the country effects in the consulting area, while country effects are more pronounced in the law area.
Originality/value
This paper is an original study of mainly secondary data – including those collected from firms' internet sites – analyzing change in an institutionalized environment. It is one of the first studies to make use of the GPN concept. Researchers and practitioners interested in professional service firms in general will find a unique combination of data, analyses, and conclusions.
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Audit within China has developed since the 1980s in line with developments in Chinese society and political life more generally. The system of Chinese local government audit is…
Abstract
Audit within China has developed since the 1980s in line with developments in Chinese society and political life more generally. The system of Chinese local government audit is deeply related to Chinese national audit. The Chinese National Audit Office sets the standards by which the systems work and each auditor both works for the national auditor and the appropriate tier of regional or local government. The system of audit is designed both to check the way in which the government operates financially and in some cases to examine the effective operation of the government.
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Ahmad Khudair and David Bawden
The paper aims to gain a detailed understanding of the current health library/information environment in Saudi Arabia, to identify problems, issues, and areas for improvement, to…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to gain a detailed understanding of the current health library/information environment in Saudi Arabia, to identify problems, issues, and areas for improvement, to make recommendations for improvement, and to instantiate these in models and prototypes.
Design/methodology/approach
A mixed method empirical approach is used in 11 health libraries, including literature survey, institutional profiling, questionnaire, interviews, non‐participant observation, and examination of documents. A model for supporting change management in Saudi health libraries is proposed, and a prototype for a Saudi Health Information Network is developed.
Findings
The healthcare libraries are well‐used, and appreciated by their users, and the staff are generally satisfied with their work. Problems and issues are identified: use of information communication technologies and digital resources; lack of proactive information services; education, training and continuing professional development for health library work; limited strategic planning and policy for these services. Recommendations are made for improvements.
Research limitations/implications
The empirical research is limited to health sciences libraries in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. The prototype health information network has not been evaluated by users.
Practical implications
Recommendations are made to enable the government of Saudi Arabia and its various agencies to support improvements in the existing health sciences libraries and information provision.
Originality/value
This is a detailed study of the health library environment in Saudi Arabia, illustrating factors typical of the situation in many other countries. The paper outlines a novel organisational change model and prototype national health information network.
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Oliver W. Edwards and Vincent E. Mumford
Purpose. This work provides information about households where grandparents assume roles as full‐time surrogate parents to their grandchildren. Social policy implications of these…
Abstract
Purpose. This work provides information about households where grandparents assume roles as full‐time surrogate parents to their grandchildren. Social policy implications of these relationships and potential social policy changes to help these families are presented. Methodology. A comprehensive review of the literature was conducted to appropriately represent the phenomenon of grandparents raising grandchildren. Information regarding the functioning of both grandparents and grandchildren are addressed. Findings. Grandparents who raise their grandchildren tend to experience elevated levels of stress that negatively impact their social, emotion, and physical well‐being. Children in these families may encounter problems with psychological development, adjustment, and educational functioning. Grandparents who raise their grandchildren significantly influence the development of these children in the social and educational environments. The children also impact their grandparents’ well‐being. The findings underscore the need to consider social policy implications for these families. Originality/Value. This work emphasises the functioning of not only grandparents in these families, but grandchildren as well. Additionally, information is provided regarding the pejorative impact of certain social policies on grandparents’ social‐emotional well‐being and the grandchildren’s behavioural and educational functioning. Social policy propositions are offered to help these families. The information in this article will likely help professionals in governmental, social service, and educational agencies work better with these families.
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Aries Susanty, Arfan Bakhtiar, Ferry Jie and Mustofa Muthi
The purpose of this paper is to measure and evaluate the relationship between collaborative communication, power dependence, price satisfaction, trust, supplier loyalty, and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to measure and evaluate the relationship between collaborative communication, power dependence, price satisfaction, trust, supplier loyalty, and business performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Data used in this study were primary data which were collected through personal interviews and closed questionnaires using a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 to 5. The sample consisted of 170 individual dairy farmer and several dairy cooperatives, which were located in Central Java Province (Boyolali and Semarang Districts) and West Java Province (West Bandung District). The study used partial least squares with the aid of the SmartPLS software program to analyze the hypothesis.
Findings
The results of hypothesis testing indicate that collaborative communication and price satisfaction had a significant positive effect on trust for Central Java and West Java Province. Meanwhile, power dependence had a significant negative effect on trust only for West Java Province. Trust had a significant positive effect on supplier loyalty for both of the two provinces. Significant positive effect of supplier loyalty on business performance was supported in Central Java Province, whereas in West Java Province, supplier loyalty had a positive but not significant effect on business performance.
Research limitations/implications
The limitation of this study is related to the number of samples, the type of scale used to measure a business performance, and the focus that is only on the relationship between the fargmers and cooperative to improve the performance of cooperative without considering the role of management. So, the future research may replicate this study in another region or in the other contexts of agribusiness sector that usually depends on farmer as a producer of the raw material. It may also enhance the measurement of business performance of dairy cooperative by using a direct measure of financial performance and non-financial performance and broaden the scope of research into the role of management of dairy cooperative.
Practical implications
It is recommended that managers of dairy cooperatives always involve the farmers when making marketing decisions especially concerning prices, products, market, and promotion. As organizational stakeholders, their involvement is vital in determining the ability of the dairy to achieve its goals. The other recommendation is the managers of cooperatives must have a clear policy on the price of milk, and this policy should indicate the transparency and accountability. Then, regarding the long-term benefit of dairy cooperative, it is recommended for dairy cooperatives to add the value of the milk so they can access wider markets, which, in turn, will maximize returns to the members. Based on this recommendation, it is better if the dairy cooperative in Indonesia not only serves as a marketing cooperative, but also serves as a farm supply cooperative which may process or formulate the milk into a more valuable product.
Social implications
The research confirms that individual dairy farmer’s loyalty can benefit the business of dairy cooperative. It may encourage more dairy cooperative to tap the good relationship with the individual dairy farmer at the initial stage of the economic growth of their business. Intensifying competition between dairy cooperatives would potentially bring even better quality and quantity of milk from the loyal dairy farmer.
Originality/value
Although this research used the conceptual model from the previous study, this research will make some improvement. First, it used more indicators to measure each dimension of the construct, and the investigation was slightly more complex and broader since the object of the research was represented by two regions, namely, Central Java Province and West Java Province.
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Bernard McKenna, Martie-Louise Verreynne and Neal Waddell
Unequal workplace gender outcomes continue to motivate research. Using the prism of work-life-(im)balance, the purpose of this paper is to show how identity salience and…
Abstract
Purpose
Unequal workplace gender outcomes continue to motivate research. Using the prism of work-life-(im)balance, the purpose of this paper is to show how identity salience and motivation contribute to a subject position that for many reproduces socially gendered practices of workplaces.
Design/methodology/approach
After initial inductive computer-assisted text analysis, the authors innovatively move to deductively analyse data from focus group and semi-structured interviews of 18 female and 19 male Australian managers in the financial and government sectors.
Findings
The authors find that a gendered sense of reflexivity is virtually non-existent among the female Australian managers and professionals interviewed in this research. The inductive stage of critical discourse analysis revealed a substantial difference between men and women in two concepts, responsibility, and choice. These form the axes of the typological model to better explain how non-reflexive gendered workplace practices are “performed”.
Practical implications
This empirical research provides a foundation for understanding the role of choice and responsibility in work-home patterns for women.
Social implications
The absence of a reflexive gender-based understanding of women’s work-home choice is explained in Bourdieusian terms.
Originality/value
By not specifically using a gender lens, the authors have avoided the stereotypical understanding of gendered workplaces.
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Tuomo Peltonen and Sirkka-Liisa Huhtinen
While there is anecdotal evidence that internationally mobile workers often form isolated nation-based communities or “expatriate bubbles,” previous academic scholarship on the…
Abstract
Purpose
While there is anecdotal evidence that internationally mobile workers often form isolated nation-based communities or “expatriate bubbles,” previous academic scholarship on the expatriate communities and their subjective boundaries is limited. The primary purpose of this article is to advance the theoretical or conceptual understanding of expatriate communities as bubbles.
Design/methodology/approach
As developed by Lamont and Molnár (2002), the theory of symbolic boundaries is applied and set to scrutinize the production and maintenance of insulated expatriate communities. Empirically, an ethnographic study of a community of Finnish expatriates in a Southeast Asian country is undertaken to describe how symbolic boundaries are constructed.
Findings
The main theoretical implication of the paper is the recognition that expatriates themselves are involved in creating the “bubble.” The boundaries separating the national expatriate community are not externally imposed but can be viewed as consequences of the active boundary work of the expatriates. The empirical study demonstrates how the Finnish expatriates negotiated the symbolic boundaries of their community, drawing on cultural, moral and spatial modalities in different levels of boundary work.
Originality/value
There need to be more systematic attempts to develop a theoretically grounded understanding of insulated expatriate communities and their boundaries. This article contributes to the sociological conceptualization of expatriate bubbles by utilizing the symbolic boundary approach, which adds perspective to the embryonic theory of the subjective boundaries of expatriate communities. The multiplicity of different types of symbolic boundaries and their modalities suggests that an expatriate bubble is rarely a finished state or structure.
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The aim of this paper is to discuss the rise of internationalized civil society elites in Poland engaged in the fields of development cooperation, democratization assistance…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to discuss the rise of internationalized civil society elites in Poland engaged in the fields of development cooperation, democratization assistance, humanitarian relief and global education in the framework of private international governance theory.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative sociological approach and the methodology of cross-case analysis are employed in this study of Polish internationalized civil society elites.
Findings
Evidence would be provided that whereas in some donor countries the gap between civil society elites engaged abroad and their locally active colleagues obstructs the travel of ideas, in Poland aid professionals freely move between sectors, which has allowed for better exchange of know-how and also enhanced their influence on policy-making. At the same time, the existing divides within internationalized civil society elites in Poland – between “democratizing” or “developmental”, between secular and religious and between progressive and conservative as of late – are indicative of the ongoing formation of these elites and of the heterogeneity of the community of aid professionals.
Social implications
In view of the worldwide fueling of populism by anti-elitist strategists, it is important to highlight the contribution of civil society elites to mainstreaming progressive humanitarian principles.
Originality/value
Whereas existing studies on elite formation in postsocialist countries like Poland examine political elites or the role of the intelligentsia for the fledgling middle class and local civil society, this paper focuses on the emergence of a stratum of Polish elites, which are both internationalized and engaged in the nonprofit sector.
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