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Are there smart ways to find heuristics? What are the common principles behind heuristics? We propose an integrative definition of heuristics, based on insights that apply to all heuristics, and put forward meta-heuristics for discovering heuristics.

We employ Herbert Simon’s metaphor that human behavior is shaped by the scissors of the mind and its environment. We present heuristics from different domains and multiple sources, including scholarly literature, practitioner-reports and ancient texts.

Heuristics are simple, actionable principles for behavior that can take different forms, including that of computational algorithms and qualitative rules-of-thumb, cast into proverbs or folk-wisdom. We introduce heuristics for tasks ranging from management to writing and warfare. We report 13 meta-heuristics for discovering new heuristics and identify four principles behind them and all other heuristics: Those principles concern the (1) plurality, (2) correspondence, (3) connectedness of heuristics and environments and (4) the interdisciplinary nature of the scissors’ blades with respect to research fields and methodology.

We take a fresh look at Simon’s scissors-metaphor and employ it to derive an integrative perspective that includes a study of meta-heuristics.

This chapter aims to trace how the theoretical frameworks of actuarialism and managerialism have been slowly introduced into the Latin–American scientific debate, focusing on the Argentinian and Chilean examples. With this objective in mind, we explore the journey of these theories in our region focusing on the work. Additionally, we address other academic contributions that highlight “actuarial techniques” of risk as central features to analyze contemporary penalty, policing tactics, or criminal court outcomes and practices (Hannah-Moffat, 2013a, 2013b; Harcourt, 2007; Marutto & Hannah-Moffat, 2006), even overlapping concepts like actuarialism and managerialism (Barker, 2009; Kohler-Hausmann, 2018). Subsequently, we describe the acclimation of these theories in Argentina and Chile, characterized for a limited impact on the scientific debate. We suggest that the main reason for this little impact is the different stages of the criminal justice system between Global North and Global South countries. While in the first one, actuarialism and managerialism were born to explain especially the field of risk analysis, and secondarily, the role of the new public management; in the case of Latin America, managerialism has been observed through the criminal justice system reform developed in the last three decades. This observation has focused especially on some organizational transformations and, for this reason, the analysis about actuarialism and risk assessment have been marginals. We concluded that although the influence of the literature about actuarialism and managerialism from the Global North in Latin–American is real, it is not possible to extrapolate all its elements to the penal systems in the region.

This chapter aims to outline the ways in which symbolic interactionism shifts the focus of inquiry into sex from being sexual toward becoming sexual, which takes into account doing sexualities, rather than tracing their origins in a static conception of nature. This means that our being sexual varies according to the rituals and performances in which we are involved as part of our daily lives. Such is the case any time we perform a role to communicate our identity to one or more audiences from communicative, expressive, aesthetic, and verbal points of view. This process is particularly manifest in male sex working where social actors are involved in the use of excuses, justifications and, generally, motive talk that are useful to neutralize their own sexual conducts and negotiate the gender appearance and sexual practices. Using the late developments of sexualities' symbolic interactionist studies emphasized by sexual scripts theory, the chapter focuses on the theoretical necessity to understand that there are far more reasons to be sexual than ways to be sexual.

The organizational decision-making perspective (ODM) has a legacy regarding its concern for budgeting as an essential organizational routine in decision-making. Budgeting has also become a direct concern to organizational institutional theory (OIT) because of its prominent role in institution building, where budgeting can build trust in inter-organizational relationships. This paper builds on these two perspectives to explore organizational budget processes' formation, disruption, and re-creation over time.

We conducted a comprehensive review and critical analysis of the ODM and OIT perspectives, focusing on a fundamental paradox between ODM's emphasis on stability through organizational routines and OIT's focus on organizational legitimacy through the decoupled expression of organizational values. We then expanded on these paradoxical concerns in the context of budgeting, formalizing them into specific research propositions for future studies.

Tensions around the stability, decay, and re-creation of budgets as organizational routines emerge as a pressing issue requiring further empirical investigation from the ODM perspective. A critical issue in the OIT perspective is the potential for organizational budgets to provide an opportunity to decouple from practice through routinized expressions of rationality and to facilitate loose coupling in practice. These findings offer a fresh perspective and open up new avenues for future research in this area.

This paper contributes to the accounting and organizational research literature by shedding light on how organizations respond to the potential decay of budget routines and the manifestation of organizational values in decoupling processes by further re-creating and elaborating budget processes.

This study aims to explore service modularity in the context of digital technology and environmental sustainability, particularly considering the transformative impacts of the post-pandemic world. It aims to shed light on how service modularity can adapt to and thrive in these evolving circumstances.

Using a comprehensive analytical approach, this paper addresses the critical concerns and limitations inherent in traditional service modularity concepts. It proposes novel perspectives on service modularity, enriched by recent technological advancements and sustainability imperatives.

The research reveals new dimensions of service modularity, emphasising its significance in the era of digital transformation and heightened environmental awareness. It provides empirical insights into how service modularity can be effectively reimagined and implemented in response to the challenges and opportunities arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The findings offer valuable guidance for organisations seeking to enhance their service delivery through modularity. The study underscores the importance of integrating digital innovation and sustainability principles into service design and execution in the post-pandemic era.

This paper makes a novel contribution to the field of service modularity by intertwining it with the realms of digital technology and environmental sustainability. It offers a unique perspective on adapting service modularity to contemporary challenges, thereby enriching the existing body of literature and providing a foundation for future research in this area.

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the complex and multifaceted issue of changes in the quality of life of residents of the European Union (EU) member states from a dynamic perspective. This issue encompasses various social, economic, and political dimensions.

Methodology: This study uses the vector measure construction method (VMCM) to compare the quality of life in 27 EU countries since 2004. The VMCM approach, based on vector calculus properties, uses a scalar product to analyse the actual objects of analysis. Indicators such as per capita income, housing conditions, healthcare, education, and social and environmental inequality will be identified. The aggregate measure and available data will be used to create a ranking of the quality of life in each EU country, with the top-ranked country serving as a benchmark for comparison in the second phase.

Results: This study reveals that Ireland, Greece, Cyprus, and Luxembourg are the top performers in quality of life, while Hungary and Bulgaria consistently rank lower. Malta and Estonia show improvements in education, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, income, and employment rates, while Poland and Spain experience declines. Slovenia is the top performer, followed by Malta and Lithuania, which have improved their ranking over time.

Practical implications: This study underscores the dynamic nature of quality of life and provides valuable insights for policymakers and researchers alike.

The purpose of this multi-voiced paper is to propose a prosocial paradigm for the field of performance management and management control systems. This new paradigm suggests cultivating prosocial behaviour and prosocial groups in organizations to simultaneously achieve the objectives of economic performance and sustainability.

The authors share a common concern about the future of humanity and nature. They challenge the influential assumption of economic man from neoclassical economic theory and build on evolutionary science and the core design principles of prosocial groups to develop a prosocial paradigm.

Findings are based on the premise of the prosocial paradigm that self-interested behaviour may outperform prosocial behaviour within a group but that prosocial groups outperform groups dominated by self-interest. The authors explore various dimensions of performance management from the prosocial perspective in the private and public sectors.

The authors call for theoretical, conceptual and empirical research that explores the prosocial paradigm. They invite any approach, including positivist, interpretive and critical research, as well as those using qualitative, quantitative and interventionist methods.

This paper offers implications from the prosocial paradigm for practitioners, particularly for executives and managers, policymakers and educators.

Adoption of the prosocial paradigm in research and practice shapes what the authors call the prosocial market economy. This is an aspired cultural evolution that functions with market competition yet systematically strengthens prosociality as a cultural norm in organizations, markets and society at large.

With the recent proliferation of AI, organisations are transforming not only their organisational design but also the input and output operational processes of the hiring process. The purpose of this paper is to explore the organisational and operational dimensions resulting from the deployment of AI during talent acquisition process.

The authors conducted semi-structured interviews and meetings with human resources (HRs) professionals, recruiters and AI hiring platform providers in Sweden. Using an inductive data analysis rooted in the principles of grounded theory, the study uncovered four aggregate dimensions critical to understanding the role of AI in talent acquisition.

With insights from algorithmic management and ambidexterity theory, the study presents a comprehensive theoretical framework that highlights four aggregate dimensions describing AI’s transformative role in talent recruitment. The results provide a cautionary perspective, advising against an excessive emphasis on operational performance driven solely by algorithmic management.

The study is limited in scope and subject to several constraints. Firstly, the sample size and diversity are restricted, as the findings are based on a limited number of semi-structured interviews and meetings with HRs professionals, recruiters, and AI hiring platform providers. Secondly, the rapid evolution of AI technologies means that the study’s findings may quickly become outdated as new advancements and applications emerge.

The results provide managers with actionable information that can lead to more precise and strategic management practices, ultimately contributing to improved organizational performance and outcomes. Plus, enhancing their ability to make informed decisions, optimize processes and address challenges effectively.

The results signal both positive and negative impacts on employment opportunities. On the positive side, AI can streamline recruitment processes, making it easier for qualified candidates to be identified and hired quickly. However, AI systems can also perpetuate existing biases present in the data they are trained on, leading to unfair hiring practices where certain groups are systematically disadvantaged.

By examining the balance between transactional efficiency and relational engagement, the research addresses a crucial trade-off that organizations face when implementing AI in recruitment. The originality lies in its critique of the prevailing emphasis on e-recruiting.