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1 – 10 of 24Andrew Creed, Ambika Zutshi and Russell Johnson
The purpose of this paper is to develop a nuanced interpretative frame that can help global managers with recommendations to avoid misapplied power with group and organizational…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a nuanced interpretative frame that can help global managers with recommendations to avoid misapplied power with group and organizational situations.
Design/methodology/approach
Embodied metaphor is applied in analysis of the theory-praxis nexus to reconceive the bases, processes and resources associated with group and organizational power. Identified are patterns of relations in organizational bases and circuits of power, as expressed through literal and symbolic aspects of human hands and fingers. The paper does not revolve around gesticulations; instead focusing upon a novel, meta-cultural development of touchlines of the human hand, revealing conceptual relationships with the implementation of influence.
Findings
A differentiated understanding of the touchline powers of technology, information, self-awareness, relation to others and access to money can respectively improve decisions and actions. Insights are provided in the areas of controlling people to achieve objectives, demeaning others, managing change and resistance for personal gain, negotiating contracts, advancing personal interests and coordinating reward or punishment.
Research limitations/implications
Choosing one metaphor may contribute to the exclusion of other perspectives, however, the embodied nature of the hand and touchlines tends to cross cultures and may assist further research to address the embedded nature of abuses of organizational power.
Originality/value
The contribution is in the theory-praxis nexus to assist global managers in addressing the risk of potential misuse of power and influence in organizations and to respond to calls for ancient indigenous epistemological systems to assume a role in contemporary management studies.
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This paper aims to summarise a contribution to the International Comparative Social Enterprise Models (ICSEM) Project from the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It particularly…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to summarise a contribution to the International Comparative Social Enterprise Models (ICSEM) Project from the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It particularly highlights the relevance of the social constructionist approach adopted in the study to investigate and make sense of the social enterprise concept as an imported concept in a new environment.
Design/methodology/approach
This approach is used as a thread to follow through the structure proposed by the ICSEM Project, namely, to look at the concept in context, to identify social enterprise models and establish a typology, as well as to describe institutional trajectories shaping the models. This paper highlights the constructs and institutional trajectories shaping the concept, and the main findings of the study when identifying the models and establishing the typology, based on an in-depth survey of 12 social enterprises in the UAE.
Findings
While this typology can be considered as a preliminary one, it reveals creative recurrent models, with the state and private sector involved as incubators. Although the UAE offers a tax-free environment, the lack of a legal and regulatory system conducive to social enterprises seems to hamper the opportunities for them to develop and scale up.
Originality/value
This contribution is the first study to investigate the ecosystem of social enterprise and its deriving models, and to propose a preliminary typology in the UAE.
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This paper examines the concept of incremental improved performance and applies it to the field of executive coaching. The effectiveness of coaching as a management development…
Abstract
This paper examines the concept of incremental improved performance and applies it to the field of executive coaching. The effectiveness of coaching as a management development tool is assessed by means of a survey involving 25 senior executives of blue‐chip organisations. The paper emphasises that the higher up the skill hierarchy one goes, the more important marginal improvements in performance become.
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Over the past thirty years, organisations like Outward Bound have become an established feature in the training of young people. They have increased in number and widened the…
Abstract
Over the past thirty years, organisations like Outward Bound have become an established feature in the training of young people. They have increased in number and widened the range of activities offered. They have attracted rhapsodic support as well as the most bitter criticism. What they have not had before is a cool, dispassionate examination by some team qualified to carry one out. There is no shortage of writing on the subject but this has been produced by the organisers and supporters of the system, often describing the joys of discovering the outdoor life and making a mass of assumptions on their therapeutic benefits. Recently an investigation in depth has been carried out on these institutions by a team of research workers drawn from the staff of the Department of Sociology, Liverpool University. The result of their labours has been published as a book entitled The Character‐Training Industry. The authors are Roberts, White and Parker; the publisher of the book is David and Charles Ltd; it is subtitled Adventure Training Schemes in Britain; the ISB Number is 0 7153 6394 8 and the price £3·50. We are impressed by this study and the competent way it was carried out. We believe that all training officers in charge of young people would benefit greatly by reading it. John Wellens read it; here are his reactions to it.
INDUSTRY'S managers have been criticised for being amateurish; of continuing to place reliance on the old‐boy network instead of adopting the meritocratic approach of their US and…
Abstract
INDUSTRY'S managers have been criticised for being amateurish; of continuing to place reliance on the old‐boy network instead of adopting the meritocratic approach of their US and European counterparts.
The purpose of this paper is to outline the skills and responsibilities of a careers master in the late 1950s.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to outline the skills and responsibilities of a careers master in the late 1950s.
Design/methodology/approach
Schools were becoming more businesslike, and training was becoming more specialised and developed. Schools needed to have an “Officer of Information” or a “Careers Master” in order to make sure that students had the appropriate qualifications in order to follow a career path with a particular firm. The author suggests that schools needed to do more for the students than simply provide an encyclopaedia of different occupations. This paper lists the practical steps a careers master needed to take, in terms of useful literature, notices and advertisements and also in terms of giving vocational guidance to students.
Findings
This article outlines the main responsibilities of a careers master and details some of the methods he/she should be able to use.
Originality/value
This paper suggests ways in which the role of a careers master in schools can aid students to gain the appropriate qualifications and to gain further information regarding potential future careers.
Details
Keywords
The author draws on his experience to outline the main responsibilities of a careers master and to detail some of the methods he should be able to use.
Rebekah Russell-Bennett and Steve Baron
This editorial aims to highlight the challenges and dilemmas faced by journal editors and the implications for the editorial process.
Abstract
Purpose
This editorial aims to highlight the challenges and dilemmas faced by journal editors and the implications for the editorial process.
Design/methodology/approach
A sporting metaphor has been used. A soccer referee is used to highlight the tasks, roles and dilemmas faced by editors.
Findings
Editors need to identify the role they wish to play in the editorial process, and this role involves balancing the dilemmas and identifying trade-offs.
Originality/value
This research offers insight into the editorial role for authors to assist them in understanding both the process and the decisions that are made in a complex, competitive environment of publishing.
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The paper seeks to understand the different attitudinal typologies of children and parents, and the interactions between them.
Abstract
Purpose
The paper seeks to understand the different attitudinal typologies of children and parents, and the interactions between them.
Design/methodology/approach
For parental segmentation, the paper uses target group index (TGI) analysis and qualitative focus groups. For child segmentation, qualitative focus groups are used.
Findings
Parents can be divided into three main outlooks (progressive, traditionalist, and populist) and into two main approaches (active/involved and “laid‐back”), making six segments in total. Amongst all groups, an emerging nostalgia for the “free‐range childhood” of earlier years was noted. The dynamics of child culture, meanwhile, involve two outer‐directed mainstream groups (leaders and followers) and two inner‐directed “outsider” groups (“geeks” and explorers).
Research limitations/implications
This is a practically focused study rather than a strictly controlled academic one, fusing the findings of widely different research methods.
Originality/value
The six‐group parental segmentation is, as far as one is aware, original, as is the term “free‐range childhood” to the best of one's knowledge.
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