Search results
1 – 10 of 87Alexander Kouzmin, Nada Korac‐Kakabadse and Andrew Korac‐Kakabadse
This paper critically examines the influence of information technology (IT) on women’s career structures. Globalization is forcing an increasing inter‐dependence of radically…
Abstract
This paper critically examines the influence of information technology (IT) on women’s career structures. Globalization is forcing an increasing inter‐dependence of radically re‐engineered labour forces and the further “internal” exploitation of the internationalization of the dual labour market many women have endured. The global trend is towards further fragmenting a shrinking, gender‐based set of career opportunities and creating an increasingly marginalized, part‐time, “pink collar” labour force, associated with the putative revolution of the tertiary sector transforming out of industrial, manufacturing economies. The implications of the emergence of a “pink collar” labour force largely go unexamined. The much heralded argument that IT will transform “coercive” organizational structures and work practices needs, yet again, to be critically examined in the context of the further destruction of professional opportunities for women in radically re‐engineered public sectors, aggressively “micro‐economized” labour forces and rapidly dissipating organizational and social contracts.
Details
Keywords
Bruce Cutting and Alexander Kouzmin
Where do all the management theories and fads come from? Why are they so different and constantly changing. This paper develops a comprehensive and dynamic cognitive formwork from…
Abstract
Where do all the management theories and fads come from? Why are they so different and constantly changing. This paper develops a comprehensive and dynamic cognitive formwork from an understanding of the formulations of Aquinas, Lonergan, Jung, Weber and the Enneagram. The synthesis is new and goes beyond each of the sources to present a more systematic and useable JEWAL synthesis formwork. First, the neo‐platonic hierarchical structure of triadic unity is identified as a particularly pertinent and effective differentiation of reality. Second, whereas the neo‐platonists developed their hierarchical construction of reality from a meta‐physical viewpoint as emanations from the ultimate unity, later philosophers explained the differentiation of consciousness principally by working in the reverse direction. Third, the paper explains the process of learning in terms of the cognitive procession through the layered levels of differentiated consciousness. Fourth, an explanation follows as to how this cognitive formwork can be used to explain a character typology based on the differentiation of consciousness – one that finds expression in a typology commonly known as the Enneagram. Fifth, the JEWAL synthesis formwork is presented as a comprehensive framework in which to understand human governance and social action. More broadly, the paper discusses the significance for the social sciences of achieving such a synthesis of ideas within this new formwork – a synthesis between the Western developed philosophy, which runs through the work of Aquinas, Lonergan, Weber and Jung, and the Eastern physio‐psychological wisdom encapsulated in the Enneagram typology. In conclusion, the paper attempts to bring it all together in an answer to the questions underpinning the paper; namely, what does it mean to know and how do we make sense of those voices that speak out of that knowing.
Details
Keywords
Nada Korac‐Kakabadse, Alexander Kouzmin and Phillip Reeves Knyght
Examines access to justice, within the Australian context of an adversarial system, from a consumer’s perspective. It is argued that the current system of justice represents the…
Abstract
Examines access to justice, within the Australian context of an adversarial system, from a consumer’s perspective. It is argued that the current system of justice represents the most conservative element of Australian society and that the courtroom discourse structure and the legal professional code of practice do little to ensure access to justice or quality of service. Inequality in communication and in the distribution of wealth, affecting all spheres of social life, especially the legal system, pose major barriers to access to justice. Stemming from these two principal barriers to equality in access to justice, a multitude of other barriers are perceived to exist. These perceived barriers are magnified by various platforms of social and political analysis as well as historical, contextual factors and administrative action. Attention is drawn to the emerging need for a continuous alignment of administrative and justice systems with democratic justice principles and global social changes.
Details
Keywords
Bruce Cutting and Alexander Kouzmin
This paper relies on a “trinity of menetypes” of group knowing which captures the essential decision‐making dynamics of board membership. Formal, corporate decision‐making…
Abstract
This paper relies on a “trinity of menetypes” of group knowing which captures the essential decision‐making dynamics of board membership. Formal, corporate decision‐making processes require higher commitments of time and cognitive energy of directors – certainly, the requirement is of non‐executive directors to make more formal contributions to the “political” process that determines corporate commitment to appropriate courses of action. There is a fundamental shift from “managerialism” to “politicism” in the corporate dynamics of organization – a shift in “menetype” driving governance dynamics. This wholesale shift in orientation has accentuated personal and group values as key determinants of corporate efficacy. The paper proposes structural reforms to corporate/agency governance conventions, including a greater focus on performance and strategy, greater independence of more effective and extensive audit processes and a greater transparency in the nomination and remuneration of top‐executive appointments.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to overview and critique the over‐reach of highly ideological assumptions of neo‐classical economics into policy and governance terrains. The ontology…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to overview and critique the over‐reach of highly ideological assumptions of neo‐classical economics into policy and governance terrains. The ontology and epistemology of neo‐classical economics know no bounds in their imperial extension to non‐market applications. The colonization of Public Administration in Australia, and elsewhere, is a vexing epistemological issue, demanding some reckoning.
Design/methodology/approach
This deconstructive, critical essay seeks to provide a set of “check‐lists” of issues for those teaching, or proselytizing, governance within highly reduced public domains.
Findings
This paper moves an epistemological “audit” of “public choice theory” some steps forward, especially in the face of significant ideological and policy convergence, among putative social‐democratic governance regimes, regarding out‐sourcing, no‐bid contracting, agency “capture”, risk and a renewed urgency for necessary re‐regulation. The paper identifies policy imperatives for a new age of regulation after 35 years of prevailing “market fundamentalism”.
Originality/value
There has been much hubris associated with so‐called policy convergence in a globalized context. Deconstructing such hubris within a divergent world is long overdue for the next generation of scholars/policy apologists/rating agencies/and economists prone to some reflexivity in plying their “dismal” trade.
Details
Keywords
Nada Korac‐Kakabadse and Alexander Kouzmin
This paper explores the effects of information technology (IT) on the eve of the third millennium, and its ramifications for labour organization, business and culture. IT is…
Abstract
This paper explores the effects of information technology (IT) on the eve of the third millennium, and its ramifications for labour organization, business and culture. IT is conceptualized as a catalyst for a period of seminal change within the global economy. The lack of IT awareness, social diversity and the need to tap the creative synergy of socio‐cultural differences, through the better understanding of IT effects on culture are highlighted. A need for self‐reflection and a critical examination of adopted management models, especially those within embedded ethnocentric contexts of shared beliefs, values and cognitive structures, are also explored. It is argued that organizations need to learn to manage cultural diversity. The need for development of organizational ideologies that build on cognitive structures, culturally sensitized to diversity, is central to a generic strategy for managing increasingly culturally diversified organizations comprising the globalized economy in the third millennium.
Details
Keywords
Margaret H. Vickers and Alexander Kouzmin
Fundamental “purposes” of Australian police organizations are examined, not with a view to solving the complex and ongoing question of an accountable police mandate, but to…
Abstract
Fundamental “purposes” of Australian police organizations are examined, not with a view to solving the complex and ongoing question of an accountable police mandate, but to consider the difficulty of its reconciliation with the new managerialism sweeping numerous public organizations in Australia – police organizations included. Briefly explores the purposes of policing and a problematic police culture as a lead in to a discussion on the possibly deleterious effects of new managerialism and its associated management faddism. Problems associated with the theory of managerialism, which police managers may not be aware of, are explored: managerialism and economic rationalism; management fads and tool tropism; managerialism as a thinly veiled control agenda; and the potential human costs to police officers arising from managerialist approaches. Suggestions are made for ways forward for police organizations which include a recognition of the down‐side of managerialism and a suggested shift away from a belief in a purely rationalistic organization to one which recognizes and accommodates an actor’s “voice” as a legitimate input to growth, learning and institutional development.
Details
Keywords
Nada Korac‐Kakabadse, Alexander Kouzmin, Andrew Korac‐Kakabadse and Lawson Savery
States that the major reasons for difficulties in cross‐cultural communication stem from the fact that actors from different cultures have different understandings regarding the…
Abstract
States that the major reasons for difficulties in cross‐cultural communication stem from the fact that actors from different cultures have different understandings regarding the interaction process and different styles of dialogue. Suggests that better understanding of communication within other cultures is the key to success. Uses past literature to suggest a number of cultural variability constructs concerning preferred interaction behaviours and the common themes they share. Presents three case studies to illustrate this.
Details
Keywords
David B. Dickerson, Alexander Kouzmin and Nada Korac‐Kakabadse
The purpose of this paper is to engage and provoke thought amongst strategists that their frameworks are bound by their cultural mindsets. The paper aims to explore the need for a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to engage and provoke thought amongst strategists that their frameworks are bound by their cultural mindsets. The paper aims to explore the need for a new ethical model that accounts for the cultural differences of the participants from Western and Eastern Europe
Design/methodology/approach
This paper applies the varied expertise of the three authors to provide an exploratory study of ethics and strategy within different cultural frameworks. Dilemma theory, the chosen methodology that has been recognized by cross‐cultural management scholars, is applied to illustrate the need to resolve a cultural problem between a Latvian and Russian as a means to creating a unified strategic ethical framework.
Findings
The demonstration of Russia's cultural past perceptions of the west illustrates the need for crafting a new ethical platform that allows for all cross‐cultural participants to apply dilemma theory as a prescriptive approach to unite their differences into a new strategic framework.
Research limitations/implications
The main limitation of the study is related to the methodology. In further research longitudinal data could be potentially collected and mined to actually elicit the real dilemmas existing between those participants from the west, the Baltics and Russia that are involved in the strategy formulation process that creates the proposed ethical framework.
Practical implications
Many of the people representing companies in the Baltic States are finding themselves reconciling the cultural differences between themselves, members of neighboring Baltic States, Russia, European countries, the USA and Asia. Special attention should be paid to the importance of being a trans‐culturally competent manager in the Baltics by building the bridge from the West to the East.
Originality/value
The main value of the paper is the challenge that it provides to all western management scholars to think outside their own mindset when endeavouring to lecture the Eastern European mentality on how to be “ethical”. Moreover, it provides Russian management scholars with a voice and argues the need for a new platform that incorporates their cultural values and thinking.
Details