Search results

The Moral of the Story is a college textbook focusing on moral philosophy, discussing classical and contemporary ethical theories, and illustrating them through summaries and excerpts of stories selected from the world of fiction. This article is the author’s reflection on conceiving and writing the textbook, as well as providing updated, revised editions over a quarter of a century. Through eight editions, The Moral of the Story has reflected the changing times from the early 1990s through the first two decades of the twenty-first century, primarily in the United States, with shifting moral debates, new modes of storytelling, and new generations of students. Each edition has become a commentary on some of those changes, with new narratives illustrating classical moral problems. The author, seeking common ground in moral philosophy through the theory of soft universalism, raises the question whether or not there is still common ground in fictional narratives among students of today to facilitate the comprehension of ethical theories. The author suggests that while mores may change, and forms of storytelling expand beyond the written word, storytelling is part of our human nature, and stories will still provide a valuable access to discussing problems and solutions within our complex world of ethics and ethical theories, in particular in a college environment.

Based on a case study of Norway, the purpose of this paper is twofold: to present recent trends in the development of the multi‐level governance of the care services for the elderly and people with mental illness towards what we call the cooperative turn; and to discuss the implications of this trend for universalism in service provision.

The paper is a study of documents and the recent research literature.

A shift towards the cooperative turn can be identified as a change from command‐and‐control instruments to soft regulation mechanisms. Regulations and economic means are increasingly complemented by informational means. Soft versions of the steering instruments are used to target the results and processes of local policies. Hard instruments do not disappear, and a mixture of all the abovementioned instruments governs the two policy fields. This has implications for universalism defined as territorial uniformity, accessibility and coverage as user groups are competing for scarce resources, professionals are gaining autonomy in decision making and users are involved in service provision.

The originality of this paper is the discussion of the development of multi‐level governance towards a cooperative turn and the implications of this for universalism in service provision.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the papers included in this special issue and discuss the theme – shifts in Nordic welfare governance.

The paper discusses the major themes and sets out the structure of the special issue.

The picture emerging is mixed and there is evidence for strong decentralisation where policy instruments allow for considerable local room to manoeuvre. Organisational arrangements for governance are also highly localised, but (over time) oscillate between decentralisation and centralisation. As for the consequences for universalism, the contributions point to three contrasting scenarios. The first, relatively optimistic assessment suggests that while decentralisation challenges territorial equality, in some Nordic countries there seems to be inbuilt self‐correcting mechanisms pulling in the opposite direction. The second scenario is more critical and here it is argued that shifts in welfare governance, such as decentralisation and the introduction of elements of self and market governance, challenge universalism; universalism has become highly contingent on local circumstances and the practice of welfare delivery mixes different types of justice. The final scenario is rather pessimistic about the prospects of universalism and suggests that the shifts in welfare governance challenge universalism on all counts and lead to a wide range of new inequalities among citizens. This echoes the analysis of non‐Nordic countries in Europe where the scope for universalism remains limited.

The contribution of this special issue is twofold. First, using elderly care as a case study, the special issue analyses the complexity of welfare governance by looking at changes in both the vertical and the horizontal dimensions of governing. Second, focusing on Nordic countries, it assesses the substantive implications of shifts in welfare governance, notably in terms of universalism.

The purpose of the paper is to assess the relevance of the personal value called self‐transcendence as an explanatory factor regarding gender differences in the socio‐cultural adjustment of expatriate employees.

A sample of 37 male and 31 female expatriates responded to an online questionnaire concerning their self‐transcendence value and their adjustment as expatriate employees.

Self‐transcendence of the expatriate predicted interactional and work adjustment. Perceived expatriate‐local difference in self‐transcendence was a negative predictor of work and interactional adjustment. Females had higher (non‐significant) self‐transcendence than males. Further gender differences in the impact of self‐transcendence and perceived expatriate‐local differences in self‐transcendence were found.

Further research into the effect of expatriate levels of the personal value of self‐transcendence, its two components, universalism and benevolence, and gender differences therein appears warranted. Statistical techniques to establish causality should be used.

Knowledge regarding the self‐transcendence values of candidates for expatriate assignments may assist global human resource managers to make more effective selection decisions regarding expatriate assignments.

The study described in this paper is among the first to assess potential explanations for the better interactional and work adjustment of female expatriates compared to males. This study replicates earlier findings regarding the relationship between perceived expatriate‐local differences in self‐transcendence and expatriate socio‐cultural adjustment and provides new knowledge regarding gender differences in this relationship.

The purpose of this paper is to address a perennial question regarding the importance of soft total quality management (TQM) as part of the TQM implementation process – a topic that has been significantly understudied. Specifically, the authors address previous calls in the literature for stressing the soft aspects of TQM and for drawing a critical success factor (CSF) list that is formulated on the basis of empirical research instead of theory.

This is a comparative qualitative case study of three manufacturing SMEs combining empirical data from in-depth, semi-structured interviews with a large variety of stakeholders – from top managers to shop-floor workers, site visits and observations.

The study identifies 12 soft CSFs, and while most of these factors have been well-documented in the literature (e.g. top management involvement and leadership), the authors show evidence for the existence of other soft constructs that have not been considered or have been given little importance previously (i.e. middle management involvement and support, reward and recognition, CSR focus).

The study fills two major gaps in the (T)QM literature. First, it enriches the understanding of TQM implementation among Japanese SMEs. Second, it addresses the importance of soft TQM as part of the TQM implementation process.

This paper provides company owners and managers with valuable knowledge that may assist their organisations in the pursuit of business excellence including higher product quality and employee satisfaction.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first (international) study to investigate TQM implementation within the context of Japanese SMEs.

This paper aims to identify and categorise the values expressed in women-led social entrepreneurship based on a typology of universal values. It explores the influence of gender and religious faith on the values that inspire social entrepreneurial organisations to engage in positive social change.

Inductive multiple case study research investigates the values manifest in five social entrepreneurial organisations founded and led by women in three Southeast Asian countries.

Organisations and their women-leaders express values related to benevolence, universalism, self-direction and security. Gender and religious faith are found to be mediators that influence approaches to social transformation.

Purposive sampling and interpretive research design favour rich description but limit the generalisability of the findings. Further enquiry is needed into the gender-values-religion nexus in social entrepreneurship.

Social entrepreneurship is shown to be a process embedded in and motivated by prosocial values of benevolence and social justice and other values of self-direction and security. Findings provide evidence for the critical but often overlooked influence of gender and religious faith on the values foundation of social entrepreneurship.

Social entrepreneurial organisations led by women contribute to positive social change through the values they incorporate and express.

Research on the link between gender, values and religious faith in social entrepreneurship is virtually non-existent.

Offers insights into workplace empowerment by concentrating on the wider contemporary (UK) context of work, conceptualising work in the on‐going debates on human resource management (HRM) and postmodernity. Connections are made between theory and practice in HRM and postmodern critique, drawing on an empirical case study. Compares the postmodern motifs of consumerism and consumption, commodification and image projection and the HRM ideals of commitment, individuality and continuous development. Suggests that viewing HRM as discourse may enable a focus for, if not a reconciliation of, the debate between theoretical HRM and HRM in practice.