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1 – 10 of 175Buddhini Ginigaddara, Thayaparan Gajendran and Cameron Beard
Offsite construction (OSC) is a modern method of construction (MMC) that involves manufacturing and assembly of buildings. Industry 4.0-driven technological advancements have…
Abstract
Purpose
Offsite construction (OSC) is a modern method of construction (MMC) that involves manufacturing and assembly of buildings. Industry 4.0-driven technological advancements have accelerated OSC uptake causing many skilled construction workers requiring re-skilling or up-skilling. Quantity surveyors currently play an important role throughout a construction project life cycle, and hence, their knowledge on OSC projects is vital for the continuity of quantity surveying (QS) profession. The purpose of this paper is to critically review QS education in an OSC perspective and to propose strategies for up-skilling.
Design/methodology/approach
This research includes a detailed literature review of QS and OSC to evaluate how OSC affects the QS profession. Publicly available information on the university websites on accredited QS and construction management degrees was reviewed to identify OSC and MMC references, specifically the content listing and learning outcomes.
Findings
Out of the 315 degrees offered by 157 universities, only 69 degrees in 32 universities refer to OSC or MMC. OSC concept is explicitly referred in subjects related to construction technology, production management, lean construction, digital construction and MMC. As such, the research suggests including lean production principles, OSC techniques and design philosophies such as design for manufacture and assembly be added to the QS curricula.
Research limitations/implications
This research is a comprehensive desktop study that does not involve empirical data-based evaluation. Research findings inform strategies to improve QS education and professional competencies.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first of its kind that evaluates accredited QS degrees and learning requirements in an OSC perspective.
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Focuses on nursing in the context of a broader analysis of flexible labour markets, with a focus on part‐time and casual work, which thousands of nurses in Canada have been forced…
Abstract
Focuses on nursing in the context of a broader analysis of flexible labour markets, with a focus on part‐time and casual work, which thousands of nurses in Canada have been forced into through health care restructure. Discusses the subject in great detail and concludes employers lost control of their own strategy with regard to the restructure of employment for their staff.
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Mohinder Dugal and Shanthi Gopalakrishnan
Environmental volatility is a central construct in strategy studies. This paper argues that three factors confound the literature on volatility: asymmetry in conceptualization…
Abstract
Environmental volatility is a central construct in strategy studies. This paper argues that three factors confound the literature on volatility: asymmetry in conceptualization, asymmetry in operationalization, and lack of attention to level of analysis. These limitations inhibit the development of the concept and make much of the research on volatility non‐additive. However, environments do matter and to make better sense of it we need a meta‐conceptualization. To do this, the paper presents a process‐based resources‐oriented view of volatility that argues that the volatility experienced by the firm is largely a function of the resources it has available to meet the demands made of it. It is proposed that volatility originates from four basic resource configurations: managerial‐human resources configuration, physical resources‐conversion configuration, intangible resources configuration, and positional configuration. Propositions consistent with prior theories and incorporating the new resources‐oriented viewpoint are presented and discussed.
Research on mentorship has been dominated by the West and little is known about the cultural variations of the mentoring phenomenon in Asian countries. A richer understanding of…
Abstract
Research on mentorship has been dominated by the West and little is known about the cultural variations of the mentoring phenomenon in Asian countries. A richer understanding of the cultural context that is more attuned to mentoring experience in Asia can help to improve workplace experience, in general, for those working in and for those who intend to work in the region. This chapter captures the important theoretical lenses in the mentoring literature, and also provides a clear demarcation between negative mentoring and dysfunctional mentoring. This is followed by contextualizing mentoring as per four of Hofstede's six cultural dimensions by dwelling on mentoring experience in countries such as China, India, Pakistan, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. It is hoped that this chapter will pave the way for further research, which may be a precursor for theory development.
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Using data from a feminist discourse analysis of comments on Facebook news articles, this research outlines backlash and regulatory practices directed towards youth activists…
Abstract
Using data from a feminist discourse analysis of comments on Facebook news articles, this research outlines backlash and regulatory practices directed towards youth activists Greta Thunberg, X González and Malala Yousafzai. A conceptual framework of semiotic violence highlights how these comments function to silence, delegitimise, vilify and punish sociopolitically active girls who challenge the status quo. The first mode of semiotic violence works to symbolically annihilate girl activists by silencing or rendering their political contributions invisible. The most obvious manifestation of this is instructing girls to shut up and go away. Additionally, their activism is ignored by refusals to acknowledge it as appropriate through suggestions they focus on gender-normative activities, such as domestic chores, playing with dolls and finding boyfriends. Undermining girls’ agency by describing them as puppets, mouthpieces, script readers, pawns and tools is also common. Here, girls’ contributions are rendered invisible through implications that they are being brainwashed and manipulated. The second mode of semiotic violence reinforces ideologies that girls are not politically competent and punishes them for being outspoken. This includes explicitly discrediting girls’ knowledge and abilities. Regulating their emotionality is also prevalent. This is consistent with Liberal political theory which justified women’s exclusion from public life by associating men with reason and women with emotion. Finally, insults degrade them for transgressing into a space demarcated as an adult and masculine realm. The semiotic violence directed towards these ‘girl power’ figures highlights that many people do not believe girls have the right to assert their sociopolitical opinion.
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– The purpose of this article is to review the use of linguistic methods such as narrative and discourse analysis in workplace management research.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to review the use of linguistic methods such as narrative and discourse analysis in workplace management research.
Design/methodology/approach
Ten journals are reviewed in a time period of six years between years 2004-2010. The journals are categorized into three linguistic methodological journals and seven journals on built environment. Additionally articles were gathered with search words of workplace management, discourse and narrative analysis. Out of the total 2,245 articles, 40 articles were considered to be relevant for this research.
Findings
The linguistic methods of narrative and discourse analysis are not recognized in the workplace management research in a comprehensive way by combining the research on built environment to the research on organization and culture. In the workplace management research methods of narrative and discourse analysis were applied to the processes of built environment. Additionally methods were applied to the research of space and place as means of communication and means of identity construction.
Practical implications
Linguistic approach would reveal underlying messages behind evident structures of workplace and give new insights on understanding and developing workplaces both in design and in use.
Originality/value
The linguistic methods of narrative and discourse analysis are rarely used in workplace management research and should be considered as a new resource in the research of WPM.
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Abraham Carmeli and Asher Tishler
The goal of this study is to examine the effect that nine managerial skills of the firm's top management team (TMT) (persuasiveness, administrative ability, fluency in speaking…
Abstract
Purpose
The goal of this study is to examine the effect that nine managerial skills of the firm's top management team (TMT) (persuasiveness, administrative ability, fluency in speaking, knowledge about group tasks, diplomacy and tact, social skills, creativity, conceptual skills, and cleverness) have on the performance of industrial firms (a weighted average of seven performance measures).
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from chief executive officers of 93 industrial enterprises in Israel through structured questionnaires and complementary in‐depth investigation. Both multivariate (robust canonical analysis and hierarchical regressions) and in‐depth analyses were used to analyze the study's results.
Findings
The results show that managerial skills possessed by the TMT strongly affect firm performance, their impact apparently being greater than that of variables representing industry sectors, firm size and age, and perceived environmental uncertainty. In particular, skills that are required to manage people (human resources skills) are found to be more important to firm performance than intellectual abilities.
Practical implications
The study emphasizes the importance of complementary managerial skills as an indicator of quality TMT. The TMT's ability to make good decisions and lead the organization to meet external and internal constituents is a very complex task.
Originality/value
The study contributes to the literature by first, providing support to the importance of managerial skills for firm performance; second, suggesting a new avenue to incorporate the resource based view into the field of strategic leadership in general and managerial skills in particular; and finally, indicating the importance of simultaneously testing the effect of a set of predictors (managerial skills) on a set of performance measures.
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The action taken by the Council of the British Medical Association in promoting a Bill to reconstitute the Local Government Board will, it is to be hoped, receive the strong…
Abstract
The action taken by the Council of the British Medical Association in promoting a Bill to reconstitute the Local Government Board will, it is to be hoped, receive the strong support of public authorities and of all who are in any way interested in the efficient administration of the laws which, directly or indirectly, have a bearing on the health and general well‐being of the people. In the memorandum which precedes the draft of the Bill in question it is pointed out that the present “Board” is not, and probably never was, intended to be a working body for the despatch of business, that it is believed never to have met that the work of this department of State is growing in variety and importance, and that such work can only be satisfactorily transacted with the aid of persons possessing high professional qualifications, who, instead of being, as at present, merely the servants of the “Board” tendering advice only on invitation, would be able to initiate action in any direction deemed desirable. The British Medical Association have approached the matter from a medical point of view—as might naturally have been expected—and this course of action makes a somewhat weak plank in the platform of the reformers. The fourth clause of the draft of the Bill proposes that there should be four “additional” members of the Board, and that, of such additional members, one should be a barrister or solicitor, one a qualified medical officer of health, one a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, and one a person experienced in the administration of the Poor‐law Acts. The work of the Local Government Board, however, is not confined to dealing with medical, engineering, and Poor‐law questions, and the presence of one or more fully‐qualified scientific experts would be absolutely necessary to secure the efficient administration of the food laws and the proper and adequate consideration of matters relating to water supply and sewage disposal. The popular notion still exists that the “doctor” is a universal scientific genius, and that, as the possessor of scientific knowledge and acumen, the next best article is the proprietor of the shop in the window of which are exhibited some three or four bottles of brilliantly‐coloured liquids inscribed with mysterious symbols. The influence of these popular ideas is to be seen in the tendency often exhibited by public authorities and even occasionally by the legislature and by Government departments to expect and call upon medical men to perform duties which neither by training nor by experience they are qualified to undertake. Medical Officers of Health of standing, and medical men of intelligence and repute are the last persons to wish to arrogate to themselves the possession of universal knowledge and capacity, and it is unfair and ridiculous to thrust work upon them which can only be properly carried out by specialists. If the Local Government Board is to be reconstituted and made a thing of life—and in the public interest it is urgently necessary that this should be done—the new department should comprise experts of the first rank in all the branches of science from which the knowledge essential for efficient administration can be drawn.
This study aims to identify and examine the antecedents of attitude toward entrepreneurial behaviors (ATEB) of firms. Additionally, this study also identifies and examines the…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to identify and examine the antecedents of attitude toward entrepreneurial behaviors (ATEB) of firms. Additionally, this study also identifies and examines the antecedents of innovativeness and proactiveness. Furthermore, this study explains how factors within and outside the organization affect ATEB, innovativeness and proactiveness.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses the attention-based view (ABV) and examines the effects of long-term focus and industry clockspeed on attitude toward firms’ entrepreneurial behaviors (EB). This study measures ATEB by analyzing the top management team’s words in the earnings conference calls. It applies the two-stage least squares regression with fixed effects and instrumental variables to conduct the empirical analysis.
Findings
The results indicate that the direct effects of long-term focus and industry clockspeed on ATEB are not significant. However, the moderating effect of industry clockspeed on the relationship between long-term focus and EB is significant and positive. The results indicate that firms that are operating in fast clockspeed industries exhibiting long-term focus exhibit EB. Furthermore, the results also indicate that long-term focus and industry clockspeed collectively affect innovativeness and proactiveness.
Practical implications
This research helps firms to develop entrepreneurial behavior operating under various task environment conditions.
Originality/value
This study applies the ABV of the firm and contributes to the area of firm-level EB, while prior studies have not implemented this perspective in investigating firm-level EB. Past studies have not applied the ABV of the firm to study EB, innovativeness and proactiveness either independently or collectively.
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