A. Christian Morgan, Diana L. King, Rick D. Rudd and Eric K. Kaufman
Programs in agricultural leadership are continuing to enjoy success in institutions around the country. To this point, there has been a lack of research conducted to (a) identify…
Abstract
Programs in agricultural leadership are continuing to enjoy success in institutions around the country. To this point, there has been a lack of research conducted to (a) identify objectives for these programs, (b) identify courses that should be taught in these programs, (c) identify the need for and objectives of an internship requirement, or (d) determine future placements of program graduates. This study sought the opinions of 15 agricultural leadership experts from across the nation to address these questions. Although the panel came to consensus on these areas it was apparent that the experts in agricultural leadership must continue to work toward national goals and standards for agricultural leadership programs.
This paper aims to explore the changing nature of religion (also described in terms of faith or spirituality) as experienced in the USA, particularly regarding the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the changing nature of religion (also described in terms of faith or spirituality) as experienced in the USA, particularly regarding the interrelationship between business and religion within the contexts of culture, law and management. With a solid understanding of these subjects, business leaders, judges and public policy officials will be able to more effectively deal with issues arising from a more religious workplace.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper begins by examining the religious nature of the USA, with attention paid to the embrace of religious tolerance from a cultural perspective and religious liberty from a legal perspective. The piece then looks at the characteristics associated with religious vibrancy. Then, the paper delves into the impact of religion on business, both yesterday and today. Legal and managerial literature, studies and perspectives are used to determine how business can respond and perhaps even embrace a more religious business environment.
Findings
After describing and critiquing cultural, legal and managerial dimensions associated with an increasingly religious business environment at worker and owner levels, this paper suggests there exists currently an adequate legal structure to serve the needs of religious workers and owners, if properly managed. More research is needed to find solutions to situations where competing interests conflict, but this paper provides a foundation upon which further study can be conducted.
Originality/value
This paper draws from cultural, legal and management sources to provide an understanding of the current religious environment facing business, legal and public policy leaders.
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Ken McPhail and Carolyn J. Cordery
The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the 2004 AAAJ special issue (SI): “Accounting and theology, an introduction: Initiating a dialogue between immediacy and eternity,” the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the 2004 AAAJ special issue (SI): “Accounting and theology, an introduction: Initiating a dialogue between immediacy and eternity,” the relative immediate impact of the call for papers and the relevance of the theme to address issues in accounting today and in the future.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is a reflection and is framed around three different modes of engagement with new perspectives as identified by Orlikowski (2015). These are religion as phenomenon, as perspective and as a worldview. The authors draw on Burrell and Morgan’s (1979) framework in order to explore the ontological and epistemological blinkers that have limited the attempts to explore accounting from a theological perspective.
Findings
The paper argues that historical and current structures can limit the manner in which accounting research uses theological perspectives. Indeed, the concerns of the initial SI remain – that the contemporary economic and knowledge system is in crisis and alternative ways of questioning are required to understand and respond to this system.
Research limitations/implications
As a reflection, this paper is subject to limitations of author bias relating to our beliefs, ethnicities and culture. The authors have sought to reduce these by drawing on a wide range of sources, critical analysis and the input of feedback from other scholars. Nevertheless, the narrative of impact remains a continuing story.
Originality/value
In drawing on both an original SI guest editor and a scholar for whom the 2004 SI has become a touchstone and springboard, this paper provides multiple viewpoints on the issue of accounting and theology.
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Michael J. Tews, John W. Michel and Sydney Pons
While Christmas and the holidays are widely celebrated in society at large in the US, the question arises whether doing so has value in today’s organizations. In this light, the…
Abstract
Purpose
While Christmas and the holidays are widely celebrated in society at large in the US, the question arises whether doing so has value in today’s organizations. In this light, the present study examined the relationship of workplace holiday practices with positive affect and emotional engagement, along with some boundary conditions of these relationships. Specifically, this research examined the moderating influences of religious orientation, political orientation and political environment.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected at two points in time via an online survey. At time 1, the participant survey included measures of workplace holiday practices, political orientation and demographic characteristics. At time 2 (approximately two weeks afterward), the participant survey included measures of positive affect and emotional engagement.
Findings
Workplace holiday practices were related to both positive affect and emotional engagement. There were slightly stronger effects for the impact of workplace holiday practices among individuals who reside in more conservative (“red”) states in the US on emotional engagement, but not positive affect. Individual political orientation did not moderate the relationships between workplace holiday practices and the outcomes. Counter to expectations, the absence of workplace holiday practices had a stronger negative effect on non-Christians’ emotional engagement than Christians. The interaction between workplace holiday practices and religious orientation with positive affect was nonsignificant.
Research limitations/implications
The data from this research were obtained via a survey methodology. Although data on the independent and dependent variables were obtained at two different points in time, future research could experimentally manipulate features of the work environment related to the celebration of the holidays to more definitively establish cause-and-effect relationships.
Practical implications
This research highlights the value of celebrating Christmas and the holidays. In this light, organizations should not underestimate the potential value of such celebratory activity in promoting employee goodwill. At the same time, organizations must be cognizant that some individuals may value the celebration of Christmas and the holidays more so than others.
Originality/value
This research provides a framework for further research on workplace holiday practices and identifies theories that can be used in future research to explore the mechanisms that influence how and under what conditions workplace holiday practices impact employees’ experiences at work.
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Christian Democracy as an ideology and as a political movement has been ascendant in Western European states for half a century, forming the governing party or a major part of the…
Abstract
Christian Democracy as an ideology and as a political movement has been ascendant in Western European states for half a century, forming the governing party or a major part of the governing coalition of parties in many of them over numerous decades up to the present. Yet the study of Christian Democracy, its general ideology and general programmatic elements across Western Europe, has been singularly lacking. Centrist establishment parties and economic programmes seem not to have the same appeal to academic investigators as the more exciting and ideologically demarcated ones. Also the future seems bleak for some Christian Democratic parties in Western Europe. The focuses are on the general ideology of the movement and the shared programmatic commonalities among the parties. Advances a consideration of the future for CD parties in the short term and the problems confronting Christian Democracy in the future. Also assesses the role and prospects for Christian Democracy in the European Union, particularly as they relate to the European People’s Party (EPP) in the European Parliament.
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This qualitative case study explored the information literacy acquisition of 23 students enrolled in a learning community consisting of an advanced English as a Second Language…
Abstract
This qualitative case study explored the information literacy acquisition of 23 students enrolled in a learning community consisting of an advanced English as a Second Language (ESL) writing class and a one-unit class introducing students to research at a suburban community college library in California. As there are no other known learning communities that link an ESL course to a library course, this site afforded a unique opportunity to understand the ways in which ESL students learn to conduct library research. Students encountered difficulties finding, evaluating, and using information for their ESL assignments. Strategies that the students, their ESL instructor, and their instructional librarian crafted in response were enabled by the learning community structure. These strategies included integration of the two courses’ curricula, contextualized learning activities, and dialogue. ESL students in this study simultaneously discovered new language forms, new texts, new ideas, and new research practices, in large part because of the relationships that developed over time among the students, instructor, and instructional librarian. Given the increasing number of ESL students in higher education and the growing concern about their academic success, this study attempts to fill a gap in the research literature on ESL students’ information literacy acquisition.
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The chapter presents the gospel festival as a significant postmodern religious tourism phenomenon which has not thus far been recognized or critically theorized. To date…
Abstract
The chapter presents the gospel festival as a significant postmodern religious tourism phenomenon which has not thus far been recognized or critically theorized. To date, conceptualizations of religious tourism, specifically pilgrimages, have been dominated by Turnerian concepts of liminality and communitas. It is suggested that these concepts, while valuable, do not sufficiently account for the heterogeneous and contested nature of these event spaces or their potentiality for the performance of alternative modes of social ordering. The Foucauldian notion of heterotopia is adapted as a more apposite theoretical framework and an example of a gospel festival in Australia is drawn on by way of explication.
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The monograph argues that American racism has two colours (whiteand black), not one; and that each racism dresses itself not in oneclothing, but in four: (1) “Minimal” negative…
Abstract
The monograph argues that American racism has two colours (white and black), not one; and that each racism dresses itself not in one clothing, but in four: (1) “Minimal” negative, when one race considers another race inferior to itself in degree, but not in nature; (2) “Maximal” negative, when one race regards another as inherently inferior; (3) “Minimal” positive, when one race elevates another race to a superior status in degree, but not in nature; and (4) “Maximal” positive, when one race believes that the other race is genetically superior. The monograph maintains that the needs of capitalism created black slavery; that black slavery produced white racism as a justification for black slavery; and that black racism is a backlash of white racism. The monograph concludes that the abolition of black slavery and the civil rights movement destroyed the social and political ground for white and black racism, while the modern development of capitalism is demolishing their economic and intellectual ground.
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Jennifer Marie Warnock, Monica Gibson-Sweet and Christian J. van Nieuwerburgh
Coaching for teachers has evolved as a form of professional development. The benefits of such interventions have been examined with regard to student, teacher and school outcomes…
Abstract
Purpose
Coaching for teachers has evolved as a form of professional development. The benefits of such interventions have been examined with regard to student, teacher and school outcomes, but the purpose of this paper is to present an investigation relating to the benefits of instructional coaching (Knight, 2006) to teachers as perceived by the teachers themselves.
Design/methodology/approach
The study utilises a subjectivist approach with a constructivist paradigmatic stance (Morgan and Burrell, 1985). Eleven semi-structured, face-to-face interviews were conducted (King, 2019) with teachers at a secondary (high) school in the UK. The data were interpreted and analysed using thematic analysis (Braun and Clark, 2006).
Findings
The research suggests the following four benefits to the teachers who participated in the study, which aligned well with the literature review: improved relationships, awareness, reflectiveness and enhanced practice. A fifth perceived benefit reported by the participants was positive attitude, which captured a sense of increased confidence, motivation and positivity.
Research limitations/implications
Findings were based on the self-reported data of a small sample. Therefore it is not possible to generalise the findings but Thematic Analysis was used to understand perceptions and insights in a wider context (Ritchie and Lewis, 2003). This research builds on the literature focusing on perceived benefits to teachers. Findings generally support current theoretical understanding. The results of this exploration of the teacher perception of benefits of instructional coaching in one UK school contributes to the emerging literature about the benefits of coaching. The teacher perceived benefit of positive attitude does not appear to be identified in the literature.
Practical implications
In practice, this study raised awareness of the possible benefits of coaching to educators. The authors recommend that educators, policymakers and educational leaders should further explore the potential benefits of coaching in education settings. Utilising teacher perception, the study further confirms coaching to be a useful way of supporting educators to enhance their practice.
Originality/value
This paper fulfils an identified need to gain a better understanding of teacher-perceived benefits of coaching. This understanding will support school leaders and policymakers who may be considering how to best leverage coaching in educational settings.
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Modern scholars of the history of economic thought recognise that John Bates Clark’s earlier works bear far less formal abstraction and, instead, fervently appeal for economic…
Abstract
Modern scholars of the history of economic thought recognise that John Bates Clark’s earlier works bear far less formal abstraction and, instead, fervently appeal for economic reforms that are inspired by Protestant ethics and German Historicism. After the violent Haymarket incident in Chicago in 1886, Clark is assumed to have entirely dismissed his preoccupation with social reforms and ethics. We provide a counterpoint to this common understanding by finding out that Clark’s originally ethical impetus persists throughout his writings beyond Haymarket. The striking parallelism of his earlier ideas on moral progress and the role of Protestant ethics herein and his later model of natural evolution and entrepreneurial change allow us to characterise Clark’s economics as persistently reformative in character. Further, his application of marginalism must not be understood as purely deductive analysis. Instead, it shows the ideal of an economy that performs analogously to a coherent organism. Clark’s theory of value and distribution is found to build substantially on his reformative claim that the American economy should be founded on a principle of equal and voluntary exchange. This republican idea of the economy is integrated into an ontological reflection of the very preconditions of social wealth.