Search results

1 – 10 of 526
Article
Publication date: 4 April 2016

Paul Chipangura, Dewald Van Niekerk and Gerrit Van Der Waldt

The purpose of this paper is to understand the meaning of social constructivism and objectivism within the context of disaster risk from which disaster risk policy can be…

2229

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to understand the meaning of social constructivism and objectivism within the context of disaster risk from which disaster risk policy can be analysed. In particular, the paper attempts to explore the implications of social constructivism and objectivism in disaster risk which is essential in explaining why disaster risk has different nuances and consequently policy responses.

Design/methodology/approach

A literature survey was used to explore social constructivism and objectivism within the context of disaster risk. The survey involved documentary searches from academic books, journal articles and disaster risk reports to serve as primary research data.

Findings

The analysis revealed that viewing and managing disasters through the lens of objectivism might not yield the desired results of minimising risk as it conceals the vulnerabilities to disaster risk. The objectivist perspective is therefore in itself considered inadequate for the study of disaster risk and that social constructivist assumptions are required in order to analyse disaster risk. Towards this end, social constructivism offers a discursive approach to disaster risk policy science; one that more optimally illuminates competing local perspectives.

Originality/value

An epistemological and ontological assessment of social constructivism and objectivism in disaster risk can assist greatly in understanding the discursive dimension of disaster risk through explanations of how and why disasters are framed the way they are framed and the implications of this on policy formulation and implementation.

Details

Disaster Prevention and Management, vol. 25 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0965-3562

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 31 December 2003

Onkar Ghate and Edwin A Locke

You must attach clear, specific meanings to words, i.e. be able to identify their referents in reality…. All philosophical con games count on your using words as vague…

Abstract

You must attach clear, specific meanings to words, i.e. be able to identify their referents in reality…. All philosophical con games count on your using words as vague approximations. You must not take a catch phrase – or any abstract statement – as if it were approximate. Take it literally. Don’t translate it, don’t glamorize it, don’t make the mistake of thinking, as many people do: “Oh, nobody could possibly mean this!” and then proceed to endow it with some whitewashed meaning of your own. Take it straight, for what it does say and mean. Instead of dismissing the catch phrase, accept it – for a few brief moments. Tell yourself, in effect: “If I were to accept it as true, what would follow?” This is the best way of unmasking any philosophical fraud…. To take ideas seriously means that you intend to live by, to practice, any idea you accept as true. Philosophy provides man with a comprehensive view of life. In order to evaluate it properly, ask yourself what a given theory, if accepted, would do to a human life, starting with your own (Rand, 1982, p. 16).We begin this chapter by taking Ayn Rand’s advice. We project – by means of a fictional story – what it would be like for a businessman to accept and live by the philosophy of postmodernism.

Details

Post Modernism and Management
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-573-4

Article
Publication date: 27 June 2008

Kenneth Einar Himma

The purpose of this paper is to attempt to resolve some unclarity about the nature and character of intercultural information ethics (IIE).

1057

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to attempt to resolve some unclarity about the nature and character of intercultural information ethics (IIE).

Design/methodology/approach

By survey of some of the relevant literature, the paper identifies and explains the distinctive projects of IIE. In addition, to facilitate the achievement of these projects, the paper attempts to identify the most fruitful metaphysical and meta‐ethical assumptions about truth and moral truth. In particular, to identify and determine which of objectivist theories of truth and morality or intersubjectivist theories of truth and morality provides a better theoretical foundation for IIE.

Findings

Two projects are identified: a descriptive project and a normative project. It is argued that moral objectivism provides a better foundation for the normative (project than moral intersubjectivism (or, as it is sometimes called, normative cultural relativism) in the sense that objectivism provides a more solid ground for the principle grounding the normative project – namely that agreement among cultures on principles of information ethics is good or desirable. In other respects, it is concluded that moral objectivism and moral intersubjectivism do equally well in grounding the normative project.

Originality/value

The paper is the first to compare the two methodological approaches and points in the direction of the most fruitful approach to take in pursuing IIE.

Details

Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society, vol. 6 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-996X

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 16 December 2017

John B. Davis

In his 1931 unpublished “Surplus Product” manuscript Sraffa used an open–closed distinction to explain the relationship between the “economic field” and distribution. This chapter…

Abstract

In his 1931 unpublished “Surplus Product” manuscript Sraffa used an open–closed distinction to explain the relationship between the “economic field” and distribution. This chapter examines Sraffa’s thinking in this regard, and shows how it allowed him to resolve a problem he encountered in his early objectivist representation of commodity production in economies with a surplus. The chapter argues that Sraffa adopted a view different from Bertalanffy’s general systems theory understanding of open and closed systems developed around the same time in such a way as to address the specific nature of economics. The chapter compares two related interpretations of Sraffa’s thinking in regard to the open–closed distinction developed by Arena and Ginzburg, and also addresses how Sraffa’s thinking regarding open and closed systems compares with similar thinking of Wittgenstein and Gramsci. The concluding discussion contrasts Sraffa’s causal reasoning with mainstream economics’ ceteris paribus method of causal reasoning.

Details

Including a Symposium on New Directions in Sraffa Scholarship
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78714-539-9

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 May 2006

Johannes C. Cronjé and Dirk Burger

The purpose of this paper is to consider the type of learning that takes place if members of an under‐resourced community are exposed to a free‐to‐use computer that is connected…

1273

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to consider the type of learning that takes place if members of an under‐resourced community are exposed to a free‐to‐use computer that is connected to the internet.

Design/methodology/approach

Qualitative application of an instrument that was developed to evaluate the information resource for the extent to which it facilitates both objectivist and constructivist learning. Video recordings of the interactions of people at the information kiosk were viewed and transcribed, and subjected to classical analysis to answer the questions posed by the instrument.

Findings

It was found that this particular information resource contained both objectivist and constructivist elements. Furthermore, it was found that objectivism and constructivism are complementary to one another and the degree of integration varies according to certain pedagogical dimensions. An open‐access information portal affords opportunities both for direct instruction and constructivist learning.

Research limitations/implications

Based in a peri‐urban environment in South Africa with a small sample.

Practical implications

The main contribution of this study is to investigate the interaction between information, knowledge, learning and pedagogy, which will help the information designer to better understand these interactions when designing an information resource. Furthermore, the instrument developed for this study can be used to evaluate other information resources, thus ultimately improving the standard of such resources.

Originality/value

The paper proposes a solution to the age‐old objectivist/constructivist debate that prevails when considering the cognitive functioning of information users.

Details

Aslib Proceedings, vol. 58 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0001-253X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 2014

Richard J. Herzog and Katie S. Counts

Objectivism is the critical lens used to view organizational communication of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The Government Performance Results Modernization Act…

Abstract

Objectivism is the critical lens used to view organizational communication of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The Government Performance Results Modernization Act of 2010 changed requirements for such communication by mandating that agencies like DHS emphasize performance goals and targets to be achieved in the upcoming years in their performance reporting. Interpretivism is the sense-making lens used to view changes in performance reporting. This study focuses on performance target reductions, new performance measures, and retired performance measures documented in a DHS annual report. Nineteen performance measures were selected and discussed from empirical interpretivist and institutional interpretivist lenses. When intepretivism cannot match what is reported with what would appear to be logical, administrative ironies are established.

Details

International Journal of Organization Theory & Behavior, vol. 17 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1093-4537

Article
Publication date: 9 March 2015

Bo Enquist, Samuel Petros Sebhatu and Mikael Johnson

The purpose of this paper is to provide a deeper understanding of transcendence as business logic and to advance value co-creation and value network thinking. The authors are…

1471

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide a deeper understanding of transcendence as business logic and to advance value co-creation and value network thinking. The authors are looking for business logic to have wider understanding of sustainable business. Understanding how value is “networked” and “co-created” by what the authors will call “transcendent business logic” in specific contextual settings is deemed essential in securing sustainable business, which social and environmental perspectives and governance issues are embedded. The authors lay the foundation for enriching the transcendence for business logics for a sustainable business based on sustainability, stakeholder-unifying perspective and value creation network theories.

Design/methodology/approach

The study adopts a qualitative approach, using multiple case studies to undertake an analysis of the role of transcendence for business logics. Four case studies of private companies and parallel case studies of retail, health care and public organizations (regional public transport networks) are applied. The paper further asses a methodological approach goes beyond the positivistic paradigm in service research to understand the texts and analyze the research materials. This section presents the methodological approach based on transcendence beyond objectivism and relativism and the transformation process of transcendence business logic.

Findings

The paper demonstrates that “different business logics” contributes to securing sustainable business embedded on social and environmental perspectives on governance issues. The authors have shown this based on the idea of transcendence, which can be used from a methodological point of view based on a deeper understanding beyond objectivism and relativism. The authors argued in this paper for a methodological path beyond functionalism. The authors are providing a deeper understanding of the business logic; co-creating value for people and developing sustainability for society. The study has also shown that values form the network, and co-creation is the basis for transcending the business logics.

Originality/value

The paper makes original contribution to the exploring transcendence for business logics to be in lieu of guiding open source business models based on the need for understanding of the new logic in the new complex landscape. In service research, the main theoretical challenges of understand and integrating value co-creation and value networks to secure sustainable businesses are founded on the principles of steering and navigation. In this study the authors addressed the need for advancement of value co-creation network thinking and perusal for the business logic to have a wider understanding of sustainable business.

Details

Journal of Service Theory and Practice, vol. 25 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2055-6225

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 5 May 2015

Rafael Borim-de-Souza, Zandra Balbinot, Eric Ford Travis, Luciano Munck and Adriana Roseli Wünsch Takahashi

– The purpose of this paper is to characterize sustainable development and sustainability as study objects for comparative management theory.

2290

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to characterize sustainable development and sustainability as study objects for comparative management theory.

Design/methodology/approach

The primary objective of this paper is to characterize sustainable development and sustainability as study objects for comparative management theory.

Findings

Analytical dimensions were related to establishing three proposals, which represent possible theoretical routes for characterizing sustainable development and sustainability as study objects for comparative management theory. A framework which illustrates the theoretical route taken to develop these proposals is presented at the end of the theoretical-analytical discussions.

Research limitations/implications

This paper considers that discussion about sustainable development, sustainability and comparative management theory, as interesting themes for organizational studies, lack epistemological clarity and theoretical depth. Such shortcomings are identified based upon the difficulty in identifying ontological postures, epistemological perspectives, dominant paradigms and conceptual approaches that enable greater coherence to analysis of these themes, and also support the undertaking of research that can contribute to enriching proposals related to comparative management theory.

Originality/value

This is an innovative paper as it relates comparative management theory approaches with structural concepts from sustainable development and sustainability developed using contributions from organizational theories, sociological reflections, and political science. The proposed characterization is intended to blaze new and alternative epistemological paths for adding greater rigor to empirical research focussed on the relationship investigated here in a theoretical context.

Details

Cross Cultural Management, vol. 22 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1352-7606

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 27 April 2021

Lonnie R. Morris

This chapter explores leadership failure by way of performance appraisal. A series of experiences in two different organizations with two different managers is examined through…

Abstract

This chapter explores leadership failure by way of performance appraisal. A series of experiences in two different organizations with two different managers is examined through the lens of four critical performance appraisal mistakes – lack of objectivism (assessment based upon own experiences, beliefs and expectations), freshness (relying on recent events with little consideration for past behavior), causal attribution (flawed interpretation of employee behavior) and first impression (assessment based upon something learned from early introduction to employee, often the first encounter) These mistakes represent a continuum of infractions for which ethical leadership is offered as an antidote. Ethical leadership strategies are provided to support employees, managers, teams, and organizations in counteracting, avoiding, surviving and eliminating these mistakes, respectively.

Details

When Leadership Fails: Individual, Group and Organizational Lessons from the Worst Workplace Experiences
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80043-766-1

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 September 2012

Miriam Green

The purpose of this paper is to examine what counts as knowledge in the organization/management field.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine what counts as knowledge in the organization/management field.

Design/methodology/approach

Conventional, legitimated knowledge is analyzed through research into representations of an influential management text. Management and management accounting textbooks and research papers are investigated to establish the types of knowledge produced.

Findings

Mainstream representations of this book are partial, focusing on a “model” of what is likely to ensure successful organizational change – structural and systemic adaptations. What has been ignored is the problematization of structural change and the role of human agency. The foci and omissions of these representations cohere with divisions in the social sciences more generally – between “objectivist” and “subjectivist” ontologies and epistemologies.

Research limitations/implications

There is a need for further research into representations of texts about organizational change, the way the objectivist/subjectivist divide is played out, and its significance for organization/management studies and more widely for the social sciences.

Practical implications

Questions arise as to the validity and sustainability of such knowledge. Omissions about the difficulties in implementing structural change raise epistemological and practical difficulties for students, managers and consultants.

Social implications

Omissions of human subjectivities and agency from mainstream knowledge is problematic regarding successful organizational change and social issues more widely.

Originality/value

The paper's value lies in the in‐depth analysis of representations of a text in the organization/management area and the linking of the type of knowledge produced with broader epistemological and methodological issues in the social sciences.

1 – 10 of 526