Catharine Mary Ross, Laurie Robinson and Jan Francis-Smythe
– The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of academic scholarship on the development and practice of experienced managers.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of academic scholarship on the development and practice of experienced managers.
Design/methodology/approach
Semi-structured interviews with experienced managers, modelled on the critical incident technique. “Intertextuality” and framework analysis technique are used to examine whether the use of academic scholarship is a sub-conscious phenomenon.
Findings
Experienced managers make little direct use of academic scholarship, using it only occasionally to provide retrospective confirmation of decisions or a technique they can apply. However, academic scholarship informs their practice in an indirect way, their understanding of the “gist” of scholarship comprising one of many sources which they synthesise and evaluate as part of their development process.
Practical implications
Managers and management development practitioners should focus upon developing skills of synthesising the “gist” of academic scholarship with other sources of data, rather than upon the detailed remembering, understanding and application of specific scholarship, and upon finding/providing the time and space for that “gisting” and synthesis to take place.
Originality/value
The paper addresses contemporary concerns about the appropriateness of the material delivered on management education programmes for management development. It is original in doing this from the perspective of experienced managers, and in using intertextual analysis to reveal not only the direct but also the indirect uses of they make of such scholarship. The finding of the importance of understanding the “gist” rather than the detail of academic scholarship represents a key conceptual innovation.
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Sun Xiao, Catharine Ross and Jonathan Liu
The purpose of this paper is to address the challenge in evaluating China's overseas management training and development (MTD) in cross‐cultural settings. It examines the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to address the challenge in evaluating China's overseas management training and development (MTD) in cross‐cultural settings. It examines the evaluation practice of China's overseas MTD interventions and explores a comprehensive approach to the MTD evaluation.
Design/methodology/approach
This study collected both quantitative and qualitative data from 526 major stakeholders involved in China's overseas MTD. A mix method approach is used to explore the perspectives of different stakeholders.
Findings
The respondents from different stakeholder groups perceived purposes of evaluation and problems conducting evaluation differently. The perceived evaluation criteria and approaches by individual group were also focused differently. The current evaluation system was based on segmented information collection and little joint effort was found in the MTD evaluation. The judgement on the value of China's overseas MTD is culturally sensitive due to the diversity of stakeholders from different cultural backgrounds. A new framework is proposed to address the evaluation challenge.
Research limitations/implications
This study is limited to evaluating China's MTD between China and the UK. The evaluation framework is based on complex involvement of multiple stakeholders in an international setting. It may not be applicable to situations where only two parties are involved in training.
Practical implications
The proposed stakeholder‐based evaluation framework may be used for other skill‐based training and development programs involving multiple stakeholders in the international arena.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the HRM evaluation literature by focusing on a unique evaluation setting and proposes a framework to evaluate a complex international MTD initiative by the Chinese Government.
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Personnel departments often have particular responsibility for equal opportunities within their organizations. This paper explores equal opportunities within personnel departments…
Abstract
Personnel departments often have particular responsibility for equal opportunities within their organizations. This paper explores equal opportunities within personnel departments themselves, in relation to the careers of ethnic minority personnel practitioners. Through primary research, it identifies a range of criteria which can affect personnel careers, of which ethnic origin is often one. However, although being categorized as of ethnic minority origin often hinders personnel careers, the paper reveals that it is sometimes possible for individuals who are so categorized to overcome that negative effect through demonstrating some of those other criteria. Thus, the paper suggests, it is not just organizational equal opportunities practices which may provide hope for ethnic minority personnel careers but also – and perhaps more importantly – the actions of the ethnic minority individuals themselves. Ways in which personnel departments might support these actions are discussed.
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The purpose of this paper is to develop a model of ethical decision-making that applies to accountants and the accounting profession.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a model of ethical decision-making that applies to accountants and the accounting profession.
Design/methodology/approach
This model is an integration of five factors that influence ethical decision-making by accountants: professional codes of conduct; philosophical orientation; religious orientation; culturally derived values; and moral maturity.
Findings
This model is a synthesis of previous identified factors that influence ethical decision-making and incorporates them into a model that is specific to professional accountants.
Research limitations/implications
The authors develop a set of propositions and explain how this model can be tested and its implications for both the accounting profession and the teaching of business ethics.
Originality/value
This model presents a new way of viewing ethical decision-making by accountants that is predicated on the importance of professional codes of conduct that influence both behaviour and decision-making. The external certification of professional accountants provides a layer of accountability not previously incorporated into ethical decision-making models.
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Sharon Lauricella and Kristy-Lynn Pankhurst
The purpose of this paper is to examine how fire services use social media to educate the public about safety and fire prevention.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how fire services use social media to educate the public about safety and fire prevention.
Design/methodology/approach
Grounded theoretical methods were employed in a rigorous qualitative analysis of five significant fire services’ Twitter accounts in Ontario, Canada.
Findings
Seven main themes emerged from the data, with an overarching conclusion that tweets made by fire service organisations and professionals do not focus primarily on fire safety.
Research limitations/implications
This paper addresses a gap in the literature in terms of understanding how social media communicates information about all three lines of defence against fire, with a focus on the first two: public fire safety education, fire safety standards and enforcement and emergency response.
Practical implications
The authors suggest that fire services need to employ a more segmented approach to social media posts with an objective to engage and educate the public.
Originality/value
This paper is the first extensive qualitative analysis to consider the particulars of fire services’ social media presence.
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Mark Julien, Karen Somerville and Jennifer Brant
The purpose of this paper is to examine Indigenous perspectives of work-life enrichment and conflict and provides insights to better support Indigenous employees.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine Indigenous perspectives of work-life enrichment and conflict and provides insights to better support Indigenous employees.
Design/methodology/approach
Interviews were conducted with 56 Indigenous people from six Canadian provinces. In total, 33 of the respondents were female and 23 were male. The interview responses were transcribed and entered in NVivo10. Thematic analysis was used.
Findings
The authors’ respondents struggled with feeling marginalized and felt frustrated that they could not engage in their cultural and family practices. The respondents spoke of putting family needs ahead of work and that many respondents paid a price for doing so.
Research limitations/implications
The results are not generalizable to all Indigenous peoples, however these results do fill a void in the literature.
Practical implications
Employers must consider revising policies including providing more supervisor support in the form of educating supervisors on various Indigenous cultural practices and examine ways of providing more flexibility with respect to cultural and family practices.
Social implications
Indigenous peoples have been marginalized since the advent of colonialism. This research addresses a gap in the literature by presenting how a group of Indigenous respondents frames work-life enrichment and conflict.
Originality/value
Very few studies have examined Indigenous perspectives on work-life enrichment and conflict using a qualitative research design. It also aligns with one of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s calls to action.
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Holly J. McCammon, Allison R. McGrath, Ashley Dixon and Megan Robinson
Feminist legal activists in law schools developed what we call critical community tactics beginning in the late 1960s to bring about important cultural change in the legal…
Abstract
Feminist legal activists in law schools developed what we call critical community tactics beginning in the late 1960s to bring about important cultural change in the legal educational arena. These feminist activists challenged the male-dominant culture and succeeded in making law schools and legal scholarship more gender inclusive. Here, we develop the critical community tactics concept and show how these tactics produce cultural products which ultimately, as they are integrated into the broader culture, change the cultural landscape. Our work then is a study of how social movement activists can bring about cultural change. The feminist legal activists’ cultural products and the integration of them into the legal academy provide evidence of feminist legal activist success in shifting the legal institutional culture. We conclude that critical community tactics provide an important means for social movement activists to bring about cultural change, and scholars examining social movement efforts in other institutional settings may benefit from considering the role of critical community tactics.
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Michael L. Naraine, Norm O'Reilly, Nadège Levallet and Liz Wanless
Although sports fans have increased their use of digital media to consume sport, especially at professional sport venues, it is unknown the extent to which patrons of said venues…
Abstract
Purpose
Although sports fans have increased their use of digital media to consume sport, especially at professional sport venues, it is unknown the extent to which patrons of said venues are utilizing venue services for these activities. As such, this study asks: (1) How much data do patrons at a sports venue consume via the provided Wi–Fi? and (2) What types of online activity behaviors do Wi–Fi users at sports venues exhibit?
Design/methodology/approach
This empirical study reports stadia Wi–Fi data usage and consumer behavior from three National Basketball Association venues in the United States: Amway Center in Orlando, FL, Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY and Target Center in Minneapolis, MN, over a course of 7 games per venue.
Findings
The findings suggest that Wi–Fi usage is more limited than anticipated. Users who do utilize the venue Wi–Fi do so for very short periods, with the vast majority of user duration lasting between 1 and 10 min. Additionally, the halftime period of games experiences the peak of Wi–Fi usage.
Originality/value
By increasing our understanding of Wi–Fi usage in venues, this study informs relationship marketing theory research and contributes to the sport management literature. Practically, a better knowledge of Wi–Fi usage is critical, as it constitutes a critical antecedent to develop online marketing strategies.
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Andrea Doucet and Lindsey McKay
This research article explores several questions about assessing the impacts of fathers' parental leave take up and gender equality. We ask: How does the conceptual and contextual…
Abstract
Purpose
This research article explores several questions about assessing the impacts of fathers' parental leave take up and gender equality. We ask: How does the conceptual and contextual specificity of care and equality shape what we focus on, and how, when we study parental leave policies and their impacts? What and how are we measuring?
Design/methodology/approach
The article is based on a longitudinal qualitative research study on families with fathers who had taken parental leave in two Canadian provinces (Ontario and Québec), which included interviews with 26 couples in the first stage (25 mother/father couples and one father/father couple) and with nine couples a decade later. Guided by Margaret Somers' historical sociology of concept formation, we explore the concepts of care and equality (and their histories, networks, and narratives) and how they are taken up in parental leave research. We also draw on insights from three feminist scholars who have made major contributions to theoretical intersections between care, work, equality, social protection policies, and care deficits: Nancy Fraser, Joan Williams, and Martha Fineman.
Findings
The relationship between fathers' leave-taking and gender equality impacts is a complex, non-linear entanglement shaped by the specificities of state and employment policies and by how these structure parental eligibility for leave benefits, financial dimensions of leave-taking (including wage replacement rates for benefits), childcare possibilities/limitations and related financial dimensions for families, masculine work norms in workplaces, and intersections of gender and social class. Overall, we found that maximizing both parental leave time and family income in order to sustain good care for their children (through paid and unpaid leave time, followed by limited and expensive childcare services) was articulated as a more immediate concern to parents than were issues of gender equality. Our research supports the need to draw closer connections between parental leave, childcare, and workplace policies to better understand how these all shape parental leave decisions and practices and possible gender equality outcomes.
Research limitations/implications
The article is based on a small and fairly homogenous Canadian research sample and thus calls for more research to be done on diverse families, with attention to possible conceptual diversity arising from these sites.
Practical implications
This research calls for greater attention to: the genealogies of, and relations between, the concepts of care, equality, and subjectivity that guide parental leave research and policy; to the historical specificity of models like the Universal Caregiver model; and to the need for new models and conceptual configurations that can guide research on care, equality, and parental leave policies in current global contexts of neoliberal capitalism.
Originality/value
We call for a move toward thinking about care, not only as care time, but as responsibilities, which can be partly assessed through the stories people tell about how they negotiate and navigate care, domestic work, and paid work responsibilities in specific contexts and conditions across time. We also advocate for gender equality concepts that attend to how families navigate restrictive parental leave and childcare policies and how broader socio-economic inequalities arise partly from state policies underpinned by a concept of liberal autonomous subjects rather than relational subjects who face moments of vulnerability and inter-dependence across the life course.
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David Philippy, Rebeca Gomez Betancourt and Robert W. Dimand
In the years following the publication of A Theory of Consumption (1923), Hazel Kyrk’s book became the flagship of the field that would later be known as the economics of…
Abstract
In the years following the publication of A Theory of Consumption (1923), Hazel Kyrk’s book became the flagship of the field that would later be known as the economics of consumption. It stimulated theoretical and empirical work on consumption. Some of the existing literature on Kyrk (e.g., Kiss & Beller, 2000; Le Tollec, 2020; Tadajewski, 2013) depicted her theory as the starting point of the economics of consumption. Nevertheless, how and why it emerged the way it did remain largely unexplored. This chapter examines Kyrk’s intellectual background, which, we argue, can be traced back to two main movements in the United States: the home economics and the institutionalist. Both movements conveyed specific endeavors as responses to the US material and social transformations that occurred at the turn of the 20th century, notably the perceived changing role of consumption and that of women in US society. On the one hand, Kyrk pursued first-generation home economists’ efforts to make sense of and put into action the shifting of women’s role from domestic producer to consumer. On the other hand, she reinterpreted Veblen’s (1899) account of consumption in order to reveal its operational value for a normative agenda focused on “wise” and “rational” consumption. This chapter studies how Kyrk carried on first-generation home economists’ progressive agenda and how she adapted Veblen’s fin-de-siècle critical account of consumption to the context of the household goods developed in 1900–1920. Our account of Kyrk’s intellectual roots offers a novel narrative to better understand the role of gender and epistemological questions in her theory.