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Article
Publication date: 29 June 2017

Paul Braidford, Ian Drummond and Ian Stone

The purpose of this paper is to provide an empirical evidence in support of widespread calls for new approaches to understanding small business growth, by exploring the use of…

1457

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide an empirical evidence in support of widespread calls for new approaches to understanding small business growth, by exploring the use of non-positivist methods (e.g. critical realism) to analyse how owners’ innate dispositions shape growth in practice.

Design/methodology/approach

In 2014, a telephone survey was used to inform two focus groups and 29 in-depth interviews with small business owners throughout England, covering attitudes towards growth, the use of particular strategies and perceived barriers. Discourse analysis was used to develop a multi-layered explanatory model incorporating key ideas from critical realism and the work of Bourdieu.

Findings

Bourdieusian analysis reveals the existence of orientations among small business owners towards or against business growth. Such attitudes tend to impact upon their response to perceived barriers. Growth-inclined owners were willing to strategise for long-term benefit, in return for lower returns in the short term. Growth-resistant owners were more likely to view obstacles as absolute, stating that they cannot grow their firms as a result.

Practical implications

Removing or reducing obstacles may not encourage growth if motivations and attitudes of owners do not change to embrace more growth-oriented positions. Banks’ lending practices, for example, were seen by many as problematic, but growth-oriented owners were more willing to seek and use alternatives to raise funds for growth.

Originality/value

The authors suggest that entrepreneurship researchers should look beyond positivist research to epistemologies that provide more multi-layered modes of explanation.

Details

Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, vol. 24 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1462-6004

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Article
Publication date: 6 December 2017

Ian Drummond-Smith

The purpose of this paper is to explore human issues within subordinate and leader interaction and guide police leaders in how they can achieve success. Although focussed on…

1404

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore human issues within subordinate and leader interaction and guide police leaders in how they can achieve success. Although focussed on uniformed services, leaders from all areas will find the arguments presented here useful.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper draws on a number of catastrophic case studies, including the collision of two war ships, two Jumbo Jets, the defeat of the Spanish Armarda and the failure of Hitler’s military to respond effectively to the D-Day landings. It will examine work by Rittel and Webber (1973) and Grint (2005), who propose different styles of leadership for different problems.

Findings

The paper will find that humans are inherently obedient and reluctant obedient, reluctant to challenge authority and introduces the concept of blind obedience into police leadership. A distinction will be drawn between commanding in critical situations, which are rare, and leading in routine situations; the paper will conclude that to lead the police service through the turbulent times ahead, police leaders must be on guard against blind obedience and create an environment where subordinates have a voice and will be heard. The paper also finds that “micro-management” from a remote location is ineffective and that staff must be afforded time and space to undertake tasks and that strategic leaders must allow their subordinates, at the tactical and operational levels, freedom to act with the overall strategy; the paper recommends leaders adopt a mission command approach.

Originality/value

The paper will contribute to understanding how subordinates and leaders interact and will be of value to all who lead, particularly in structured organisations like the police, where rank plays a factor in establishing a strict hierarchy. It introduces the concept of blind obedience into police leadership and warns that police leaders, and indeed leaders in all hierarchal organisations, must be on constant guard against it.

Details

International Journal of Emergency Services, vol. 7 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2047-0894

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Article
Publication date: 9 January 2007

Ian Drummond and Ian Stone

Aims to explore aspects of employee relations in firms included within The Sunday Times list of the UK's “Best Small Companies to Work For”, focusing in particular on the use of…

7614

Abstract

Purpose

Aims to explore aspects of employee relations in firms included within The Sunday Times list of the UK's “Best Small Companies to Work For”, focusing in particular on the use of high performance work systems (HPWS), and the way they impact upon performance in these businesses.

Design/methodology/approach

The research is based upon a postal survey supplemented by detailed face‐to‐face interviews with CEOs in 60 per cent of the ranked firms.

Findings

The SMEs studied are found to be highly successful in terms of sales and employment growth. Our analysis suggests that the common explanation for enhanced business performance in terms of HPWS (coherent bundles of human resource management practices that function synergistically and thus have more effect than might be expected from the sum of the parts) is a valid but partial. The bundles employed in these businesses are synergetic, but the enhanced outcomes produced need to be understood in terms of the system as a whole, not just the more concrete practices that are normally considered.

Research implications/limitations

While there is a need to explore further some of the findings through larger scale qualitative research, we contend that the deeper understanding of HPWS emerging from this approach is important to the formation of effective policy in relation to the small business sector.

Originality/value

It is suggested that the cultures, values and norms established within the businesses are necessarily part of the system and that they play a fundamental role in shaping, empowering and reproducing the practices used.

Details

Employee Relations, vol. 29 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0142-5455

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Article
Publication date: 1 March 1998

Ian Drummond, Iain Nixon and John Wiltshire

Suggests that attempts to promote more effective approaches to personal transferable skills development throughout the UK higher education sector have met with variable but…

7274

Abstract

Suggests that attempts to promote more effective approaches to personal transferable skills development throughout the UK higher education sector have met with variable but generally limited success. Considers why this has been the case. Argues that the problem is not simply one of a lack of understanding of what constitutes good practice in this area of teaching and learning ‐ the difficulties inherent in operationalising established good practice models are equally if not more significant. Identifies and discusses some of the commonly experienced barriers to the effective management of change in this area and begins to outline an agenda for addressing them.

Details

Quality Assurance in Education, vol. 6 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0968-4883

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Available. Content available
Article
Publication date: 7 March 2018

Paresh Wankhade and DeMond S. Miller

302

Abstract

Details

International Journal of Emergency Services, vol. 7 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2047-0894

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Book part
Publication date: 26 March 2020

James Chapman

The enduring popular image of James Bond is (in the words of the theatrical trailer for Dr No) ‘the gentleman agent with the licence to kill’. Yet the screen Bond is hardly a hero…

Abstract

The enduring popular image of James Bond is (in the words of the theatrical trailer for Dr No) ‘the gentleman agent with the licence to kill’. Yet the screen Bond is hardly a hero in the manner of gentlemanly archetypes such as Cary Grant and David Niven (reputedly Ian Fleming’s preferred choice for the role). This chapter will explore how the image of Bond in the films has changed over time both in response to wider social and cultural archetypes of masculinity and due to the different performance styles of the various actors to play the role: Sean Connery, whose rough-hewn Scottishness can be seen as a means of representing the ‘otherness’ of Fleming’s character (‘Bond always knew there was something alien and un-English about himself’); George Lazenby, whose one-off appearance as an emotionally damaged Bond in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service anticipated later portrayals of the character; the parodic variant of Roger Moore; the brooding Byronic hero of Timothy Dalton; the ‘Milk Tray Man’ charm of Pierce Brosnan; and Daniel Craig, whose combination of bull-in-a-china-shop physicality and vulnerable masculinity (literally so in Casino Royale) has by common consent successfully transformed Bond from a cartoon superman into a twenty-first century action hero.

Details

From Blofeld to Moneypenny: Gender in James Bond
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83867-163-1

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Article
Publication date: 1 September 1997

John M.T. Balmer and Snorre Stotvig

Provides an introduction to corporate identity management; gives an overview of the private banking sector both in the UK and overseas and, using a case study focusing on the…

6235

Abstract

Provides an introduction to corporate identity management; gives an overview of the private banking sector both in the UK and overseas and, using a case study focusing on the private bankers Adam and Co., describes the elements forming that bank’s corporate identity. These elements were history; key incidents; and service quality. The latter was found to be the most likely contributor to that bank’s identity. Argues that bank managers, in addition to asking the questions What is our business?, and what is our image? , should ask, What is our identity?

Details

International Journal of Bank Marketing, vol. 15 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0265-2323

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Article
Publication date: 1 April 2005

Li‐teh Sun

Man has been seeking an ideal existence for a very long time. In this existence, justice, love, and peace are no longer words, but actual experiences. How ever, with the American…

814

Abstract

Man has been seeking an ideal existence for a very long time. In this existence, justice, love, and peace are no longer words, but actual experiences. How ever, with the American preemptive invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq and the subsequent prisoner abuse, such an existence seems to be farther and farther away from reality. The purpose of this work is to stop this dangerous trend by promoting justice, love, and peace through a change of the paradigm that is inconsistent with justice, love, and peace. The strong paradigm that created the strong nation like the U.S. and the strong man like George W. Bush have been the culprit, rather than the contributor, of the above three universal ideals. Thus, rather than justice, love, and peace, the strong paradigm resulted in in justice, hatred, and violence. In order to remove these three and related evils, what the world needs in the beginning of the third millenium is the weak paradigm. Through the acceptance of the latter paradigm, the golden mean or middle paradigm can be formulated, which is a synergy of the weak and the strong paradigm. In order to understand properly the meaning of these paradigms, however, some digression appears necessary.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 25 no. 4/5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

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Article
Publication date: 19 August 2021

Brigid Freeman, Peodair Leihy, Ian Teo and Dong Kwang Kim

This study aims to explain the primacy that rapid, centralised decision-making gained in higher education institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a particular focus on…

769

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to explain the primacy that rapid, centralised decision-making gained in higher education institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a particular focus on Australian universities.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper draws on discussions regarding policy problems of an international, purpose-convened on-line policy network involving over 100 registrations from multiple countries. It analyses emerging institutional policy governance texts and documents shared between network participants, applies policy science literature regarding traditional institutional policy-making routines and rapid decision-making, and references media reportage from 2020. The paper traces how higher education institutions rapidly adjusted to pandemic conditions and largely on-line operations.

Findings

The study finds that higher education institutions responded to the COVID-19 crisis by operationalising emergency management plans and introducing rapid, centralised decision-making to transition to remote modes of operation, learning and research under state-imposed emergency conditions. It highlights the need to ensure robust governance models recognising the ascendance of emergency decision-making and small-p policies in such circumstances, notwithstanding longstanding traditions of extended collegial policy-making routines for big-P (institutional) Policy. The pandemic highlighted practice and policy problems subject to rapid reform and forced institutions to clarify the relationship between emergency planning and decision-making, quality and institutional policy.

Practical implications

In covering a range of institutional responses, the study advances the possibility of institutions planning better for unexpected, punctuated policy shifts during an emergency through the incorporation of rapid decision-making in traditionally collegial environments. At the same time, the paper cautions against the normalisation of such processes. The study also highlights key practices and policies that require urgent reconsideration in an emergency. The study is designed as a self-contained and freestanding narrative to inform responses to future emergencies by roundly addressing the particularities of the 2020 phase of the COVID-19 pandemic as it affected higher education.

Originality/value

There is only limited research on policy-making in higher education institutions. This research offers an original contribution on institutional policy-making during a prolonged emergency that deeply changed higher education institution’s governance, operations and outlook. Particularly significant is the synthesis of experiences from a wide range of sector personnel, documenting punctuated policy shifts in policy governance (meta-policy), institutional policy-making routines and quality assurance actions under great pressure. This paper is substantially developed from a paper given at the Association for Tertiary Education Management Institutional Policy Seminar, 26th October 2020.

Details

Quality Assurance in Education, vol. 29 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0968-4883

Keywords

Available. Content available
Article
Publication date: 19 February 2018

Ian Hamilton

649

Abstract

Details

Advances in Dual Diagnosis, vol. 11 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1757-0972

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