The relationship between trust, accountability and procedural justice is studied via research into British credit unions (CUs) following regulatory reform to remedy problems…
Abstract
Purpose
The relationship between trust, accountability and procedural justice is studied via research into British credit unions (CUs) following regulatory reform to remedy problems exposed by the 2007–2008 global financial crisis.
Design/methodology/approach
Interviews at 13 case studies of different types and sizes of credit unions in Glasgow, Scotland, are examined using template analysis and abductive theorizing to understand the effects of disproportionate reforms on small credit unions.
Findings
Smaller credit unions found three regulatory changes – namely dual regulators, increased minimum reserves and introduction of the Senior Managers and Certification Regime – excessive. Excessive change generated distrust in regulators. Regulators' insufficient attention to procedural justice contributed to this distrust.
Originality/value
Linkage of multidimensional confluent trust to a multilevel system of accountability provides an original way of understanding how indiscriminate attempts at trust repair damage some elements of trust in formal regulatory systems. Recognition of the need for procedural justice to enable smaller credit unions to articulate their extant checks and potential exemption from formal regulations provides another valuable contribution. The explanation of the abductive logic employed is also original.
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Steffen Roth, Albert Mills, Bill Lee and Dariusz Jemielniak
This article is devoted to conditions and examples of how theories may be applied as methods in the fields of management research and organization studies.
Abstract
Purpose
This article is devoted to conditions and examples of how theories may be applied as methods in the fields of management research and organization studies.
Design/methodology/approach
An introduction to minimum requirements for a successful refunctionalization of theory as method as well as to nine contributions to a special issue of the Journal of Organizational Change Management on “Theory as method” is provided.
Findings
The review of these nine cases suggests that the use of theories as methods is not necessarily harmful for the former, and particularly not for the more robust among them.
Originality/value
This article sheds new light on the value of theoretical monism or loyalty and calls for a reassessment of the relative value of expertise in a specific research field, method and or theory.
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Bill Lee and Catherine Cassell
Lifelong learning links vocational education to learning for both career and personal development. Such learning clearly has benefits for the employer, the employee and society as…
Abstract
Lifelong learning links vocational education to learning for both career and personal development. Such learning clearly has benefits for the employer, the employee and society as a whole. Recently in the UK, trade union learning representatives (ULRs) have become an important tool in the pursuit of lifelong learning and a learning society. The 2002 Employment Act gave legal recognition to ULRs and allowed them paid time off to organize learning for other employees. In this regard, ULRs now enjoy the same legal status as other trade union lay officials. The purpose of this short article is to provide an outline of those rights and to discuss some of the interesting initiatives that have taken place regarding ULRs, to help highlight best practice to date. The article will discuss in turn, learning representatives and the provisions of the 2002 Employment Act, learning agreements, learning committees and learning centers, and draws on the research we are conducting here at the University of Sheffield.
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Megane Miralles, Bill Lee, Viktor Dörfler and Marc Stierand
The aim of this paper is to show that there are workable alternatives to the debt‐finance system in the form of “state credit.”
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to show that there are workable alternatives to the debt‐finance system in the form of “state credit.”
Design/methodology/approach
The example used for the practical application of “state credit” is the State Housing programme of the 1935 New Zealand Labour Government. The primary sources are mainly the pamphlets of John A. Lee, responsible for the State Housing and Labour finance policies.
Findings
The paper shows that “state credit” was used on a large‐scale for constructive purposes, which not only provided debt‐free funding for an enduring construction programme, but one that did so without accompanying inflation or other adverse consequences which are warned of by orthodox economists.
Research limitations/implications
The paper focuses on a single example of the use of state credit, albeit an important and large‐scale one.
Practical implications
State credit was used in a major way during the 1930s to overcome unemployment while constructing something lasting and of enduring social benefit. It is a method that can be reapplied in the present time at a period where debt is reaching crisis point from entire nations down to families and individual consumers; with the most common remedy suggested relief being “austerity” and welfare cuts.
Social implications
State credit is a means of achieving large‐scale public works, while reducing unemployment, and reducing taxes, rates and prices which generally incorporate into costs the servicing of debts. The social implications are wide‐ranging.
Originality/value
The 1935 State Housing programme had endured as part of an iconic New Zealand social experiment, but one of which the method of funding is now virtually unknown.
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Bill Lee, Paul M. Collier and John Cullen
The purpose of this paper is to explain the background to the special issue and to provide an introduction to the articles on case studies included in the issue.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explain the background to the special issue and to provide an introduction to the articles on case studies included in the issue.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses a review of developments in both the qualitative tradition and case studies in management research to provide a backdrop for the articles that are included in the issue. The articles discuss: the merits of unique cases and singular forms of evidence within a single case; the comparability of case studies with tools in other areas; and methods of theorising from case studies.
Findings
The merits of case studies have often been understated. The articles in this issue highlight a broader variety of uses of case study research than is commonly recognized.
Originality/value
This guest editorial introduces the papers in this issue, which may be read either as individual contributions that have merits per se, or as part of a collection that this introductory paper helps to knit together.
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Michael Daniel Clemes, Xin Shu and Christopher Gan
Global mobile communication is one of the most dynamic and important service markets. Several researchers suggest using a theoretical approach to develop a much deeper insight…
Abstract
Purpose
Global mobile communication is one of the most dynamic and important service markets. Several researchers suggest using a theoretical approach to develop a much deeper insight into key marketing constructs such as service quality, customer perceived value, customer satisfaction, perceived switching costs, corporate image, and customer loyalty is of vital importance to the mobile communications market. This study aims to develop and test a comprehensive hierarchical model of these six important constructs. The model also incorporates the retailing function of a major mobile communication provider.
Design/methodology/approach
The research sample of 516 was drawn from customers of one of the largest mobile communications service providers in China. The data were analysed using exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling.
Findings
The results of the study support using a hierarchical and multidimensional approach for conceptualising and measuring customers' perceptions of service quality in the mobile communications market. In addition, the findings illustrate that service quality is an important determinant of customer perceived value, customer satisfaction, corporate image, and perceived switching costs. Customer perceived value is also an antecedent of customer satisfaction. Corporate image, customer satisfaction, and perceived switching costs are three key drivers of customer loyalty. However, the findings also indicate that corporate image is not an important determinant of customer satisfaction and that customer perceived value is not a key driver of customer loyalty.
Originality/value
This is the first paper that has developed and tested a comprehensive hierarchical model of the mobile communications market.
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This paper aims to examine the impact of the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA). It is expected that returns would have increased in response to the law’s…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the impact of the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA). It is expected that returns would have increased in response to the law’s passage, as it imposed a number of restrictions on unions vis-à-vis management and instituted many rules regulating unions’ internal affairs.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses event study methodology, which examines the impact of the law’s passage on the shareholder returns to the firms likely to have been affected by the law. Three different samples are used. Shareholder returns are examined on critical dates associated with the passage of the law to assess whether it benefited the firms in the samples.
Findings
Shareholder returns to firms expected to have been affected by the LMRDA fell in comparison to their competitors’ returns, indicating that the law was viewed by investors as being beneficial for firms. Presumably, the restrictions the law placed on unions were judged to be more important by investors than the improvement in unions’ image that might have resulted from the law, indicating that the law benefitted firms.
Originality/value
This is the first paper that has examined the impact of the LMRDA empirically to assess its impact on firms.
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Bill Lee and Catherine Cassell
The purposes of this paper are to explain how the need arose for trade unions to develop accounting systems to monitor learning outcomes and to illuminate how trade unions rose to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purposes of this paper are to explain how the need arose for trade unions to develop accounting systems to monitor learning outcomes and to illuminate how trade unions rose to that challenge.
Design/methodology/approach
A semi‐structured interview study of the full‐time educational officers of a number of the UK trade unions produced transcripts that were analysed using template analysis and were supplemented by collection of documentary evidence from the trade unions and interviews and documents from related organizations.
Findings
Trade unions are starting to compile extensive information about the learning opportunities that they are facilitating.
Practical implications
Information produced by the trade union's accounting systems highlights the value of the government's investment in the union learning fund (ULF).
Originality/value
This is the only study to address the systems of monitoring developed by trade unions in response to the receipt of funds from the ULF in the UK.
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In this chapter, I suggest three conceptual tools developed by William R. Freudenburg and colleagues that characterize the failure of institutions to carry out their duties �…
Abstract
In this chapter, I suggest three conceptual tools developed by William R. Freudenburg and colleagues that characterize the failure of institutions to carry out their duties – recreancy, atrophy of vigilance, and bureaucratic slippage – are of use beyond environmental sociology in the framing of the September 11, 2001 disaster. Using testimony and findings from primary materials such as the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Joint Inquiry hearings and report (2002, 2004a, 2004b) and the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (2004) alongside insider accounts, I discuss how Freudenburg’s tools have the potential to theorize institutional failures that occur in national security decision making. I also suggest these tools may be of particular interest to the U.S. intelligence community in its own investigation of various types of risk and failures.