The rapid decline in older people in paid employment has been one of the most remarkable features of the UK labour market over the last decade. This has been most acute among…
Abstract
The rapid decline in older people in paid employment has been one of the most remarkable features of the UK labour market over the last decade. This has been most acute among older men in the 55 to 64 age group. The causes of this trend have been variously attributed to aggressive ‘de‐selection’ policies in companies aimed at older employees during the recession of the early 80s; targetted programmes to raise labour — cost productivity; and enhanced provision for early retirement. Changing social values, personal choice and the impact of government programmes have also played a role.
Owners and managers in the world's most rapidly developing industry are under pressure. The real challenges of product and market differentiation, rising client expectations of…
Abstract
Owners and managers in the world's most rapidly developing industry are under pressure. The real challenges of product and market differentiation, rising client expectations of facilities and globalising markets are placing great burdens on the competence, performance and adaptability of management at all levels in the tourism business. Their ability to succeed in a more competitive and rapidly changing global economic situation and the future national and international performance of tourism and related activities will depend largely on the skills, qualities and knowledge managers are able to bring individually and collectively to their businesses.
Rhodri Thomas, David Parsons, John Barry and Valerie Rowe
This paper sets out to examine the contribution of employer co‐funding of publicly‐funded vocational education and training in the UK (i.e. training initiatives that are available…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper sets out to examine the contribution of employer co‐funding of publicly‐funded vocational education and training in the UK (i.e. training initiatives that are available to all qualified applicants but funded jointly by the public and private sectors).
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws on qualitative research undertaken with more than 30 employers in a cross‐section of economic sectors.
Findings
The evidence from this study suggests that there is no model for how and why employers start to become engaged in co‐funding publicly‐funded training.
Originality/value
The paper identifies key issues for public policy‐makers.
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John H. Bickford and Jeremiah Clabough
White nationalist groups have recently been at the forefront of American sociopolitical life, as demonstrated by the events in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017. The purpose of…
Abstract
Purpose
White nationalist groups have recently been at the forefront of American sociopolitical life, as demonstrated by the events in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017. The purpose of this paper is to explore the historical roots and various waves of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).
Design/methodology/approach
This paper offers high school teachers age-appropriate, evocative texts and disciplinary-specific, engaging tasks organized in a guided inquiry on the KKK, America’s most prominent hate organization.
Findings
Students are positioned to utilize newly-constructed understandings to take informed action on the local, state and national level.
Originality/value
Recently-published research has explored late-nineteenth century and early-twentieth century manifestations of the Klan, but not mid-twentieth and twenty-first century outbursts.
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Alia Sheety, Elizabeth Moy, Judith Parsons, David Dunbar, Kathleen C. Doutt, Elizabeth Faunce and Leslie Myers
In an environment of constrained resources and related quality assurance efforts, a growing number of American institutions are tapping collaborative relationships to develop…
Abstract
In an environment of constrained resources and related quality assurance efforts, a growing number of American institutions are tapping collaborative relationships to develop creative ways to advance institutional outcomes. The Southeastern Pennsylvania Consortium for Higher Education (SEPCHE), a non-profit organization incorporated in 1993, is a collaborative of eight private colleges and universities located in the Greater Philadelphia region. SEPCHE’s institutions are small to mid-sized colleges and universities, and like other institutions of higher education, they are increasingly challenged by several environmental factors including diminished growth in enrollment; reduced family financial capacity; limitations in availability and types of funding; and greater demand for accountability.
This chapter highlights the challenges faced by faculty to ensure that students are learning at the highest levels while balancing teaching, research and institutional responsibilities, and the role that collaborative professional development can play in helping faculty attend to these challenges. Several examples illustrate how faculty-led professional development efforts have expanded professional and research capacity efforts across institutions.
The chapter includes faculty perspectives on what has helped and hindered adoption of these efforts within and across institutions. It assesses institutional conditions and supports for sustained collaborations. These efforts are part of an initiative examining faculty work and student learning in the 21st century funded by the Teagle Foundation.
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This article is based on an evaluation of The Implementation of the European Network of Health Promoting Schools (ENHPS) in six countries carried out by the author and colleagues…
Abstract
This article is based on an evaluation of The Implementation of the European Network of Health Promoting Schools (ENHPS) in six countries carried out by the author and colleagues. It describes key elements of the health‐promoting school concept, the challenge of evaluating an international health promoting school project and selected findings taken from the research. The findings of the research described in this paper focus on two comparative aspects of the health promoting school: first, the formal curriculum and second, the social and physical environments. The research is based on formative evaluation and the methodology is mainly qualitative, using a multi‐focused approach to the data. This research draws on political, social and managerial factors which can influence institutional change in the context of creating a health‐promoting environment in schools.
Anuradha Mathrani and David Parsons
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the current glocal (global and local) environment to answer the following research questions: How does the glocal environment influence…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the current glocal (global and local) environment to answer the following research questions: How does the glocal environment influence software exporting industries in India? How is the evolving “sticky” knowledge from individuals and teams assimilated into organizational knowledge repositories? What management practices have been learnt and applied for advancement of knowledge portfolios in the offshore software business market?
Design/methodology/approach
An interpretivist research design is used to gain insights into organizational learning processes adopted by offshore software vendors for assimilating evolving knowledge into knowledge repositories.
Findings
This paper describes the influence of the current glocal environment on software exporting industries in India and presents a model for organizational learning to assimilate knowledge and build effective representations of emerging knowledge artifacts. The authors employ the concept of meta‐learning (or “learning about learning”) to analyze the recursive nature of organizational learning processes.
Practical Implications
The proposed model of meta‐learning explains how software organizations build on individual and team competencies to build core competencies. The model helps us to understand how organizations advance their learning processes and upgrade their knowledge repositories.
Originality/value
The paper offers new perspectives on how organizations reflexively monitor their knowledge processes to advance their knowledge portfolios. It identifies adhocratic and bureaucratic management processes for assimilating the evolving “sticky” knowledge from individuals into organizational knowledge repositories. This paper contributes to the growing body of literature that emphasizes ongoing learning from individual to collective level in the knowledge industry sector.
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The earliest contributors to discussions of strategy were advisors to military leaders, and that model was carried into early business schools, where the teachers of strategy…
Abstract
The earliest contributors to discussions of strategy were advisors to military leaders, and that model was carried into early business schools, where the teachers of strategy were, for the most part, people with extensive experience as executives or advisors to them. The key course materials were anecdotes and cases, and the standard intellectual discourse was organized around recollected episodes in organizational history. The central contributions of the early teaching of strategy were consciousness of the complications introduced by complexity, competition, and attention to the second-order surprises of intentional action. There was neither a pretense of theory nor a significant involvement in research.
Although it shared in the onus of a general academic skepticism about the academic legitimacy of research on business, the “discipline” of strategy sought to emulate the attributes of more established disciplines. The new field was typified by an early open interdisciplinary flavor that facilitated the differentiation of a new field, and a subsequent refinement that restricted access. By the start of the twenty-first century, this process had run much of its course, and the field of strategy had taken its place as a reasonably respectable academic specialty. The history of an emphasis on real organizations in real situations led to an openness to anchors drawn from sources other than conventional economics. These included particularly the theory of games, the evolutionary theory of the firm, and the behavioral theory of organizations.
The struggle for respectability in economics was repeatedly frustrated by the difficulty of discovering a formulation that honored the litany of economics while fitting the observations of real strategy making. The future seems likely to be more of the same, a combination of efforts to secure recognition through emulation of the standards and barriers to entry that characterize established disciplines, and of exploratory gambits that are mostly destined to be forgotten. The optimal balance is likely to be as elusive as it is in other domains.