Kevin C. Desouza and Jeffrey J. Raider
Recently, the demise of the dot.com mania, coupled with slow economic growth has caused organizations to cut costs in an attempt to improve efficiency and the bottom line…
Abstract
Purpose
Recently, the demise of the dot.com mania, coupled with slow economic growth has caused organizations to cut costs in an attempt to improve efficiency and the bottom line. Discontinuing or suspending knowledge management efforts and disbanding the chief knowledge officers' (CKOs) role is one common response from most organizations faced with these cost and efficiency pressures. The purpose of this paper is to describe why firms choose to cut knowledge management efforts and point to the deleterious long‐term effects of this course of action.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach is based on discussions with executives.
Findings
The paper highlights three common reasons why firms choose to cut knowledge management efforts, namely: knowledge management is seen as a luxury, not a necessity; knowledge management is subsumed under information technology methods; and investment in knowledge management does not offer immediate results. Moreover, the paper argues that cutting knowledge management efforts does more harm than good for a corporation in the long run.
Originality/value
The paper describes techniques that CKOs should employ to gain support of their executive peers.
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Business corporations (and unincorporated joint-stock companies) formed in Britain and the United States in the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth century…
Abstract
Business corporations (and unincorporated joint-stock companies) formed in Britain and the United States in the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth century were lightly regulated by today’s standards and, as startups, sold equity directly to investors without the aid of intermediaries, yet they suffered relatively few governance breakdowns. That is because republican government-style checks against the arbitrary power of any group of stakeholders (managers, blockholders, directors) suffused their founding documents (charters/constitutions, articles of agreement, bylaws), raising the expected costs of defalcation above the expected benefits. Over the latter half of the nineteenth century, however, the original checks disintegrated. They were functionally replaced twice, first by financial capitalism a la J. P. Morgan, then by corporate raiders and takeover specialists like KKR, but politicians neutralized the first and managers (and judges) the second, leaving many widely held corporations today under the control of CEOs/Board Chairmen who can self-deal with near impunity and have apparent incentives to do so. A return to the precepts of the republican model could help to improve governance outcomes in the future.
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Games are rapidly becoming a site where cultural ideas are explored and consumed and have recently become an arena for debate around representations of gender. This chapter draws…
Abstract
Games are rapidly becoming a site where cultural ideas are explored and consumed and have recently become an arena for debate around representations of gender. This chapter draws attention to key debates occurring in the field of video games that are also applicable to film studies. This interdisciplinary approach demonstrates the relevance to game studies of a rich vein of scholarship on the gendered action body in film studies. Drawing on research by Yvonne Tasker (1993, 2015), Lisa Purse (2011) and Jeffrey Brown (2011), this chapter seeks to unpick the tensions around gender and violence in the reception of The Last of Us Part II (Naughty Dog, 2020), particularly regarding the surprisingly vehement backlash against the unconventionally muscular deuteragonist Abby.
This chapter asks what happens when the ‘spectacular’ and ‘hard’ bodies of the action heroine enter the soft virtual world of the video game. A focus on whether Abby's body is realistic in the reception of the game leads to a discussion of the ontological status of games as a virtual medium. I argue that the process of motion capture and the real-world reference of CrossFit athlete Colleen Fotsch trouble the conventional dichotomy that understands the medium of games as virtual and film as indexical. Throughout, I use the more ambiguous and ambivalent historical reception of the body of Lara Croft as a useful point of contrast. I argue that the obsessive, hysterical response to Abby's muscular body is indicative of larger tensions between conservative ‘hardcore’ fandoms and the industry's recent drive for progressive change. By denying Abby's authenticity such players also deny female access to traditional masculine pursuits and identities, whether that be bodybuilding or gaming. This is because virtual female action stars, just as much as their real-world counterparts such as Linda Hamilton, trouble the gendered norms that underpin both second-wave feminist accounts of muscular women and the audience of hardcore video game players. As Fron, Fullerton, Morie, and Pearce (2007) critique in their article ‘The Hegemony of Play’, a double standard therefore exists in which such women must justify the reality of their musculature through a kind of ‘proof of process’. Ultimately, I conclude that a similar demand is made of the emergent female audience of gamers, who are continuously made to justify their right to play in a traditionally male space.
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Marvin G. Pickholz and Jason Pickholz
The last decade of the prior millennium witnessed many revolutionary, not evolutionary, changes in the way business is done and information is exchanged globally. The Internet has…
Abstract
The last decade of the prior millennium witnessed many revolutionary, not evolutionary, changes in the way business is done and information is exchanged globally. The Internet has changed and speeded up the ways we exchange and use information and the time necessary for doing so. This revolution has the potential to reshape the world we live in; to draw us closer together in a global community; and to allow businesses to sell products and services and to raise capital on a global basis simultaneously. Instantaneous satellite transmission of television news coverage informs us of critical events, including financial developments, in distant lands. E‐mail allows us to establish business and personal relationships and communicate ideas rapidly with foreign individuals. And we have also seen increased interest among businessmen and others in investing capital in foreign nations and in the securities of companies publicly traded in foreign or international markets. The Internet allows investors to create ‘chat rooms’ to exchange information and ideas about issuers.
Yi-Hwa Liou, Alan J. Daly, Chris Brown and Miguel del Fresno
The role of relationships in the process of leadership and change is central, yet the social aspect of the work of reform is often background in favor of more technical approaches…
Abstract
Purpose
The role of relationships in the process of leadership and change is central, yet the social aspect of the work of reform is often background in favor of more technical approaches to improvement. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to argue that social network theory and analysis provides a useful theory and set of tools to unpack the complex social work of leadership.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper the authors begin by reviewing social network theory in education to date. The authors identify strengths and gap areas and use findings and data from existing social network studies of educational leadership to highlight major concepts.
Findings
Along with empirical examples, the paper proposes four important strands of social network analysis for future research in educational leadership: multiplex networks; multi-mode networks; longitudinal networks; and real time networks.
Originality/value
This paper builds on recent scholarship using social network analysis in educational leadership and suggests that social network theory and methods provides unique and important analytic purchase in the study of educational leadership.
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The preceeding article has examined some of the motivations behind the high premiums offered shareholders of target firms in acquisitions and mergers. In essence, the acquirers…
Abstract
The preceeding article has examined some of the motivations behind the high premiums offered shareholders of target firms in acquisitions and mergers. In essence, the acquirers appear to be looking for gains largely through enhanced efficiency of operations or by the replacement of inefficient management.
Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld and Padraic L. Spence
This article examines the attitudes of chief executives across fiveservice industries (transportation and travel; retail; financialservices; communications and information; and…
Abstract
This article examines the attitudes of chief executives across five service industries (transportation and travel; retail; financial services; communications and information; and professional services) to explore industry differences with regard to strategic challenges, as well as links between strategic challenges facing firms and specific sets of staffing policies.