Alan B. Henkin and Dorothy Persson
Faculty expectations for non‐academic staff participation insystems of shared authority (governance) define the parameters oflegitimate interests. Delineates and analyses role…
Abstract
Faculty expectations for non‐academic staff participation in systems of shared authority (governance) define the parameters of legitimate interests. Delineates and analyses role sender (faculty) views of non‐academic staff participation in organizational governance. Studies four issue areas (academic affairs, financial and personnel affairs, institutional affairs, and student affairs). There was considerable support for non‐academic staff participation in governance. Results suggest limited roles in governance for non‐academic employees in complex organizations where faculty are primary role senders, and no support for the significant redistribution of legitimate faculty rights and authorities.
Details
Keywords
Mary Stanyon and Sheila Scobie
As a multidisciplinary subject, Women's Studies requires a certain amount of ingenuity by the researcher. In response to this, Women Online is not so much a “how to…” manual, as…
Abstract
As a multidisciplinary subject, Women's Studies requires a certain amount of ingenuity by the researcher. In response to this, Women Online is not so much a “how to…” manual, as an overview both of American online databases and of the issues that surround their use to students of Women's Studies. Are women's issues covered sufficiently by databases, bearing in mind that much relevant material tends to be in non‐mainstream sources (letters, small journals, conference reports, etc.) and published by small, feminist presses? Is all‐important retrospective material covered sufficiently? How can one locate material about women showing them in a positive light, when much material is written in a stereotypical way? What language does one use to carry out an effective search?
Since the first Volume of this Bibliography there has been an explosion of literature in all the main areas of business. The researcher and librarian have to be able to uncover…
Abstract
Since the first Volume of this Bibliography there has been an explosion of literature in all the main areas of business. The researcher and librarian have to be able to uncover specific articles devoted to certain topics. This Bibliography is designed to help. Volume III, in addition to the annotated list of articles as the two previous volumes, contains further features to help the reader. Each entry within has been indexed according to the Fifth Edition of the SCIMP/SCAMP Thesaurus and thus provides a full subject index to facilitate rapid information retrieval. Each article has its own unique number and this is used in both the subject and author index. The first Volume of the Bibliography covered seven journals published by MCB University Press. This Volume now indexes 25 journals, indicating the greater depth, coverage and expansion of the subject areas concerned.
Details
Keywords
As our Flashbacks for this issue clearly show, public relations is no new subject as far as librarianship is concerned. The only thing that seems to change is the name under which…
Abstract
As our Flashbacks for this issue clearly show, public relations is no new subject as far as librarianship is concerned. The only thing that seems to change is the name under which it operates. In 1911 it was called, without any subterfuge, advertising. By 1936 it had become publicity. And now it is public relations, and a subject which British librarianship is at last taking seriously.
Herbert Wamalwa, Radha Upadhyaya, Paul Kamau and Dorothy McCormick
While many studies have discussed the regulatory constraints that hinder industrial development in sub-Saharan Africa, little attention has been paid to the behavior of those…
Abstract
Purpose
While many studies have discussed the regulatory constraints that hinder industrial development in sub-Saharan Africa, little attention has been paid to the behavior of those firms that succeed despite a challenging business environment. The purpose of this paper is to fill this gap by focusing on specific strategies of a subset of successful industrial firms in Kenya.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws on two data sets. First, a quantitative data set based on a survey of food processing firms provides an overall profile of the sub-sector and the strategies employed by successful Kenyan firms. Second, qualitative in-depth case studies unpack the concept of strategy from the perspective of the firm, with the aim of showing the links between vision and strategy and the adaptive nature of firm strategy.
Findings
The quantitative data set reveals that the most important strategies used by agri-processing firms are differentiation strategies (selling at a premium), cost reduction strategies and niche strategies. A second major finding, based on the case study interviews, is that Kenyan firms adopt a combination of strategies to cope with the volatile business environment and grow their market. Furthermore, the qualitative interviews reveal that the vision of the leader is linked to firm strategy and firms follow an adaptive approach to strategy development.
Originality/value
The paper’s original contribution is the conclusion that while the existing typologies of strategy were acknowledged by respondents, their actual strategies were composites resulting from adaptive strategy development. This conclusion was made possible by the paper’s mixed methods approach.
Details
Keywords
In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of…
Abstract
In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of material poses problems for the researcher in management studies — and, of course, for the librarian: uncovering what has been written in any one area is not an easy task. This volume aims to help the librarian and the researcher overcome some of the immediate problems of identification of material. It is an annotated bibliography of management, drawing on the wide variety of literature produced by MCB University Press. Over the last four years, MCB University Press has produced an extensive range of books and serial publications covering most of the established and many of the developing areas of management. This volume, in conjunction with Volume I, provides a guide to all the material published so far.
Details
Keywords
This paper aims to demonstrate the relevance of worldviews of the global south to debates of artificial intelligence, enhancing the human rights debate on artificial intelligence…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to demonstrate the relevance of worldviews of the global south to debates of artificial intelligence, enhancing the human rights debate on artificial intelligence (AI) and critically reviewing the paper of UNESCO Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology (COMEST) that preceded the drafting of the UNESCO guidelines on AI. Different value systems may lead to different choices in programming and application of AI. Programming languages may acerbate existing biases as a people’s worldview is captured in its language. What are the implications for AI when seen from a collective ontology? Ubuntu (I am a person through other persons) starts from collective morals rather than individual ethics.
Design/methodology/approach
Literature overview on the African philosophy of Ubuntu as applied to artificial intelligence. Application of it to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) debates on establishing guidelines to the ethics of artificial intelligence.
Findings
Metaphysically, Ubuntu and its conception of social personhood (attained during one’s life) largely rejects transhumanism. When confronted with economic choices, Ubuntu favors sharing above competition and thus an anticapitalist logic of equitable distribution of AI benefits, humaneness and nonexploitation. When confronted with issues of privacy, Ubuntu emphasizes transparency to group members, rather than individual privacy, yet it calls for stronger (group privacy) protection. In democratic terms, it promotes consensus decision-making over representative democracy. Certain applications of AI may be more controversial in Africa than in other parts of the world, like care for the elderly, that deserve the utmost respect and attention, and which builds moral personhood. At the same time, AI may be helpful, as care from the home and community is encouraged from an Ubuntu perspective. The report on AI and ethics of the UNESCO World COMEST formulated principles as input, which are analyzed from the African ontological point of view. COMEST departs from “universal” concepts of individual human rights, sustainability and good governance which are not necessarily fully compatible with relatedness, including future and past generations. Next to rules based approaches, which may hamper diversity, bottom-up approaches are needed with intercultural deep learning algorithms.
Research limitations/implications
There is very few existing literature on AI and Ubuntu. Therefore, this paper is of an explorative nature.
Practical implications
The ethics of Ubuntu offers unique vantage points in looking at the organization of society and economics today, which are also relevant for development of AI, especially in its tenet of relatedness rather than individuality (and practical use of AI for individuals), taking responsibility for society as a whole (such as analyzing the benefit of AI for all strata of society), and embodying true inclusiveness. Whether looking at top-down guidelines for the development and implementation of AI or the bottom-up ethical learning process of AI (deep learning), ethics of the Global South can have an important role to play to combat global individualist tendencies and inequity, likely reinforced by AI. This warrants far more research.
Social implications
Applications of AI in Africa are not contextualized, do not address the most pressing needs of the African continent, lead to cybersecurity issues and also do not incorporate African ethics. UNESCO’s work in this regard is important but expert inputs are largely centered around Western “universal” principles and Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and EU precedence. African ethics have, so far, a small role to play in global ethics and philosophy and therefore risk to be overlooked in the discussion on AI and ethics. This is why the consultation process of UNESCO on ethics of AI was of paramount importance. However, it does not automatically lead to consultation of African philosophers or sages, as many are educated in Western (ized) education systems. See further details under practical implications.
Originality/value
This is a new area of research in which little work has been done so far. This paper offers the opportunity to widen the debate on AI and ethics beyond the conventional discourse, involving multiple worldviews, of which Ubuntu is just one.
Details
Keywords
Robert S. Goldfarb and Thomas C. Leonard
Distribution concerns who gets what. But does “who” refer to the personal distribution of income among individuals or the functional distribution of income among suppliers of…
Abstract
Distribution concerns who gets what. But does “who” refer to the personal distribution of income among individuals or the functional distribution of income among suppliers of productive factors? For nearly 150 years, Anglophone distribution theory followed the Ricardian emphasis on functional distribution – the income shares of labor, land, and capital. Only beginning in the 1960s, and consolidated by a research outpouring in the early 1970s, does mainstream economics turn to the personal conception of distribution. This essay documents Anglophone (primarily American) economics’ move from functional to personal distribution, and tries to illuminate something of its causes and timing.
This paper features a narrative case study of a leadership team engaged in an effort to transform both culture and instructional practice at an urban charter school. The paper…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper features a narrative case study of a leadership team engaged in an effort to transform both culture and instructional practice at an urban charter school. The paper describes the team's effort to align their decision-making with two frameworks selected to anchor the school's institutional change process: restorative justice and deeper learning. Interweaving rich case data with analysis, the paper explores the dilemmas that emerged as leaders struggled to “walk the talk” of these two frameworks, using this to theorize about the synergies between them and to explore the broader leadership challenges involved in transforming schools from authoritarian to humanizing institutions.
Design/methodology/approach
The researcher employed an ethnographic approach with the goal of generating a thickly-textured single case study. Data-gathering activities included more than 400 h of participant-observation, in-depth interviewing and artifact collection, conducted over the course of a ten-month academic year. Data analysis was iterative and included frequent member checks with participants.
Findings
The paper finds that restorative justice and deeper learning have powerful epistemological connections that school leaders can harness in order to ensure a coherent approach to change processes. The paper also illuminates several of the core dilemmas that school leaders should anticipate facing when embracing these two frameworks: the dilemma of responding to feedback, the dilemma of power-sharing and the dilemma of balancing expectations with support.
Research limitations/implications
The case study approach employed in this paper allows for rich understandings of specific phenomena while also providing a platform for exploring the general qualities that these phenomena might illustrate. This approach does not allow for statistical generalizability.
Practical implications
The paper suggests that it is imperative for school leaders to explore what it means to lead in ways that are coherent with their vision for change, e.g. to cultivate symmetry. Moreover, the paper demonstrates that the value of such explorations lies in the process of grappling with the tensions that arise when humanizing frameworks are implemented within systems that uphold traditional power hierarchies. Additionally, the paper affirms the value of de-siloing the transformation of school culture from the transformation of instructional practice.
Originality/value
This paper offers an unusually textured account of the messy and uncertain processes that constitute the work of school change. This paper also draws together two educational paradigms which are rarely brought into conversation with each other despite their epistemological synergy.