The purpose of this paper is to argue that the Jewish religious concept “Tikkun Olam” is a source of practical management wisdom. “Tikkun Olam” combines with the diaspora and the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to argue that the Jewish religious concept “Tikkun Olam” is a source of practical management wisdom. “Tikkun Olam” combines with the diaspora and the state of Israel's specific political and economic contexts to provide Jewish people with an important driver and legitimization tool to change the world for the better. Since science and technology innovation has become a powerful tool to impact on today's world, “Tikkun Olam” builds on this profane channel for its present expression and supports the involvement of Jewish people in this matter.
Design/methodology/approach
To substantiate this view, the author analyzes the historical trajectories of the state of Israel and the Jewish diaspora. Some evidence is provided to highlight their specific dynamics and assets for knowledge creation, accumulation and transfer. Drawing on the academic literature, the author discusses what could be Jewish specificities on that matter compared with other nations and diasporas.
Findings
This work shows how a religious ethos can permeate profane life with great efficiency and act as practical management wisdom. While Weber and Sombart point to religious ethoses to explain the emergence of capitalism, the author highlights how “Tikkun Olam” provides Jewish people with an incentive to not accept the world as it is and to engage in its transformation. Sympathetic to a Schumpeter creative destruction attitude, Jewish people are able to leverage their context and their critical knowledge training in a science and technology innovation‐based entrepreneurial drive.
Originality/value
The paper establishes a link between a religious concept and science and technology innovation. Besides discussing existing works on diaspora‐specific contexts and their role in entrepreneurship and innovation, it explains how and why a set of specific values helps a diaspora leverage science and technology potential. In an era of globalized knowledge and increasing population mobility, it reminds policy makers, religious authorities and designers of management curricula that contexts and values are both sides of a transformative coin that links potential to reality. It may help them put educational emphasis on the responsibility to consider the world not only as it is, but also as it should be.
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Based on an Israeli innovation incubators program, aims to describe a procedure to define relevant categories in order to reduce the complexity of representing the population of…
Abstract
Purpose
Based on an Israeli innovation incubators program, aims to describe a procedure to define relevant categories in order to reduce the complexity of representing the population of projects supported by an innovation program in a meaningful way.
Design/methodology/approach
Provides a concise description of the Israeli innovation incubators program and presents the characteristics of the data available. Introduces the analysis methodology and describes in detail its application to the specific data set and the classification scheme that it induces. Discusses the information that can be obtained based on this classification, and outlines some policy implications. Concludes with remarks regarding possible applications and extensions of the methodology.
Findings
Finds that the classification induced by the iterative category exclusion (ICE) procedure can serve as the basis for more sophisticated analysis using statistical tools such as regression analysis. Once the relevant categorization is obtained, it becomes easier to collect meaningful data about incubator performance for analysis at various levels of aggregation. The ICE procedure has the advantage that it does not give a priori preference to any category or to any relationship between categories, and does not require a priori identification of the categories that are to be kept and those that are to be deleted. Further, it does not need to classify categories under headings such as “scientific and technological” on the one side, and “sector applications” on the other. Both are seen as equal from the beginning to the end and thus avoid any bias in the process. The subjectivity inherent in the selection process is reduced, perhaps even eliminated. The same values provided the basis for the identification and quantification of overlap and proximities between the final categories, throwing some light on their mutual dependencies and interactions and leading to a level of representation from which strategic assessment and thinking can start.
Originality/value
The core principle of ICE is to eliminate categories that do not convey sufficient information to justify the additional complexity. This principle is universal and can be applied to a wide variety of situations that suffer from too much data and not enough information.
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Pierre Kletz, Granit Almog‐Bareket, André Habisch, Gilbert Lenssen and Cristian Loza Adaui
The purpose of this issue is to provide an overview of the special issue on practical wisdom for management from the Jewish traditions.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this issue is to provide an overview of the special issue on practical wisdom for management from the Jewish traditions.
Design/methodology/approach
The guest editorial introduces the papers in this special issue, focusing in practical wisdom for management from the Jewish traditions.
Findings
The question on the relationship between the Jewish tradition and practical wisdom for management is answered in two different ways: first, providing a particular Jewish answer to managerial problems and second, presenting how Judaism can be a field of reflection learning for managerial praxis at both organizational and individual level.
Originality/value
The paper shows that the special issue offers insights into the value of practical wisdom of the Jewish traditions, from two particular points of view, as a guide for action and as an ethical approach to management.
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Audrey Addi-Raccah and Noa Friedman
Parents’ collective involvement in their children’s education takes the form of holding leadership positions in schools. Employing the concept of liminality, which is used in…
Abstract
Purpose
Parents’ collective involvement in their children’s education takes the form of holding leadership positions in schools. Employing the concept of liminality, which is used in anthropological and sociological approaches, the purpose of this paper is to explore the features of parent leadership in schools (PLS).
Design/methodology/approach
Interviews were conducted with 18 individuals: 11 chairpersons and 7 members of the parent leadership of 11 primary schools in Israel attended by students of high socioeconomic backgrounds.
Findings
Data analyses disclose PLS as a liminal framework, which constitutes both formal and informal dimensions, whether these be its in-school limited activities or out-of-school actions in introducing change and supporting the institutions. PLS’s functions are restricted by school principals, but simultaneously enhance school principals’ position.
Practical implications
The study’s findings carry implications for school collaboration with external entities. School principals need to support PLS and keep encouraging entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation. There is a need for acknowledging the value of PLS’s contributions whereas policy makers must provide more guidelines and support to parent leaders.
Originality/value
The study focuses on exploring the position of collective parental involvement in schools. This issue is of significance in a time where parents gain more responsibility over their children’s education and schools support more collaborative relationships with external agencies. The study highlights the benefits of parents in leadership positions for school benefits and for school principals’ legitimacy, from the approach of liminality.
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In a recent food case, heard before a local bench (the actual details being of no special interest or importance for our present purpose), the defendant concerned, very naively…
Abstract
In a recent food case, heard before a local bench (the actual details being of no special interest or importance for our present purpose), the defendant concerned, very naively, and no doubt quite unwittingly, delivered a most profound remark in the course of his statement, throwing an illuminating beam on the dark workings of the minds of those who find themselves up against the law, and one that could well serve as part of a general confession for that too large company who have spent and, we fear, still spend time in attempting, to a greater or lesser extent, its evasion. The individual in question, the owner of a pretty miserable kind of business, said, gesturing defiantly, we imagine, at the local inspectorate in court, that “his shop could make money if he was left alone and not interfered with”. This, of course, is a basic idea in most wrong‐doing, although it is a senti‐ment probably more often thought inwardly than publicly expressed, by anti‐socially minded people from time immemorial, whether honest adulterators of food, sophisticators of drugs, pickpockets, or merely evaders of the just demands of the Inland Revenue.
R F Vollans writes:Nothing pleases me more than to see honours bestowed on those who are worthy of them, particularly if they are my close friends and personal colleagues. It was…
Abstract
R F Vollans writes:Nothing pleases me more than to see honours bestowed on those who are worthy of them, particularly if they are my close friends and personal colleagues. It was, therefore, with some delight that I read of the LA'S new awards—the McColvin and Besterman Medals.
Daniel Schiffman and Eli Goldstein
The American agricultural economist Marion Clawson advised the Israeli government during 1953–1955. Clawson, a protégé of John D. Black and Mordecai Ezekiel, criticized the…
Abstract
The American agricultural economist Marion Clawson advised the Israeli government during 1953–1955. Clawson, a protégé of John D. Black and Mordecai Ezekiel, criticized the government for ignoring economic considerations, and stated that Israel’s national goals – defense, Negev Desert irrigation, immigrant absorption via new agricultural settlements, and economic independence – were mutually contradictory. His major recommendations were to improve the realism of Israel’s agricultural plan; end expensive Negev irrigation; enlarge irrigated farms eightfold; freeze new settlements until the number of semi-developed settlements falls from 300 to 100; and limit new Negev settlements to 10 over 5–7 years. Thus, Clawson ignored political feasibility and made value judgments. Minister of Finance Levi Eshkol and Minister of Agriculture Peretz Naphtali rejected Clawson’s recommendations because they ignored Israel’s national goals. By September 1954, Clawson shifted towards greater pragmatism: He acknowledged that foreign advisors should not question the national goals or make value judgments, and sought common ground with the Ministry of Agriculture. At his initiative, he wrote Israel Agriculture 1953/54 in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture. Israel Agriculture was a consensus document: Clawson eschewed recommendations and accepted that the government might prioritize non-economic goals. In proposing Israel Agriculture, Clawson made a pragmatic decision to relinquish some independence for (potentially) greater influence. Ultimately, Clawson was largely unsuccessful as an advisor. Clawson’s failure was part of a general pattern: Over 1950–1985, the Israeli government always rejected foreign advisors’ recommendations unless it was facing a severe crisis.
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Riccardo Bellofiore and Scott Carter
Resurgent interest in the life and work of the Italian Cambridge economist Piero Sraffa is leading to New Directions in Sraffa Scholarship. This chapter introduces readers to some…
Abstract
Resurgent interest in the life and work of the Italian Cambridge economist Piero Sraffa is leading to New Directions in Sraffa Scholarship. This chapter introduces readers to some of these developments. First and perhaps foremost is the fact that as of September 2016 Sraffa’s archival material has been uploaded onto the website of the Wren Library, Trinity College, Cambridge University, as digital colour images; this chapter introduces readers to the history of these events. This history provides sharp relief on the extant debates over the role of the archival material in leading to the final publication of Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities, and readers are provided a brief sketch of these matters. The varied nature of Sraffa scholarship is demonstrated by the different aspects of Sraffa’s intellectual legacy which are developed and discussed in the various entries of our Symposium. The conclusion is reached that we are on the cusp of an exciting phase change of tremendous potential in Sraffa scholarship.