Carol F. Karpinski and Catherine A. Lugg
The purpose of this article is to explore some of the current tensions within educational administration in the USA and conclude with a few cautions for educators who engage in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to explore some of the current tensions within educational administration in the USA and conclude with a few cautions for educators who engage in social justice projects.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a selective case, this historical essay examines the issues of social justice and equity as they have related to educational administration in the USA.
Findings
The article finds that while educational administrative practice has been characterized as maintaining the social and political status quo, there are historic examples of leaders promoting social justice. One exemplar is J. Rupert Picott, who provides an example of how one educational leader navigated through a hostile environment to achieve equity.
Practical implications
In a society where accountability is narrowly defined and economic concerns continue to perpetuate a managerial model for educational administrators, those who embrace a social justice perspective will do so at their own peril. However, those who wish to act for the educational welfare and life outcomes of all children will likely adopt and adapt a social justice perspective suited to their own priorities and needs. In so doing they may incur professional and personal tolls.
Originality/value
This article provides an example of a leader for social justice who worked and lived under the racial apartheid of the Jim Crow US South.
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Once the third largest port in the country, the London ‘overspill’ town of King's Lynn has been revitalized in the last decade. Richard Brooks examines this once rather sleepy…
Abstract
Once the third largest port in the country, the London ‘overspill’ town of King's Lynn has been revitalized in the last decade. Richard Brooks examines this once rather sleepy market town, which now has one eye on Europe and the other on the Midlands and South‐East. Photographs by Colin Porter.
First of all I must stress that my remarks do not necessarily, or even probably, reflect Intercom's attitude — and I trust that you will treat this as personal data, in the spirit…
Karthikeyan Somaskandan, Savarimuthu Arulandu and Satyanarayana Parayitam
This study aims to empirically examine the relationship between individual learning, organizational learning and employee commitment in the context of health-care industry.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to empirically examine the relationship between individual learning, organizational learning and employee commitment in the context of health-care industry.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey instrument was distributed, and data was collected from 346 employees in the health-care industry in the Southern part of India. Hayes’s PROCESS macros were used to test the mediation, moderated moderated-mediation hypotheses.
Findings
The results reveal organizational learning as a mediator in the relationship between individual learning and continuance commitment, normative commitment and affective commitment moderate the relationship between organizational learning and continuance commitment and three-way interaction between organizational learning, normative commitment and affective commitment to influence continuance commitment of employees.
Research limitations/implications
As with any survey-based research, the present study suffers from the problems associated with self-report measures: common method bias and social desirability bias. However, the authors attempted to minimize these limitations by following appropriate statistical techniques.
Practical implications
The study suggests that managers in work organizations need to promote a climate for enhancing learning so that employees remain committed to completing their job and contribute to organizational effectiveness. The results highlight the importance of all three dimensions of organizational commitment: affective, normative and continuance.
Originality/value
This study provides new insights in understanding complex interactions between three dimensions of commitment in contributing to organizational performance. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the multilayered model showing three-way interactions between three dimensions of organizational commitment is the first of its kind and is a novel idea.
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Yung (Simon) Yau and Ho Ling Chan
To develop a multi‐criteria decision‐making framework for evaluating different schemes of urban regeneration project.
Abstract
Purpose
To develop a multi‐criteria decision‐making framework for evaluating different schemes of urban regeneration project.
Design/methodology/approach
Urban decay in Hong Kong has long warranted community concern. To tackle the problem, there are generally two different approaches, namely building rehabilitation and redevelopment. In the past, urban regeneration was dominated by complete redevelopment. However, with the rise of the concept of sustainability, the choice of building rehabilitation is becoming increasingly popular. Nevertheless, with either option, difficulties are often encountered in balancing the diverse interests of the stakeholders, who have varied aims and ambitions for the achievements of a project. Therefore, we have developed a framework, which contains the factors to be considered when planning an urban renewal project. To obtain the relative importance of these factors in a reliable but reasonably inexpensive manner from the building‐related professionals, the Non‐structural Fuzzy Decision Support System was employed. In total, 34 building surveyors and 31 town planners were interviewed using structured questionnaires.
Findings
The set of perceived weightings of the decision criteria obtained from building surveyors was quite different from that from town planners. People of different backgrounds hold divergent views towards the relative importance of the decision criteria in an urban regeneration project.
Research limitations/implications
Due to the resource limitations, individuals from the professions of building surveying and town planning were studied only.
Practical implications
To achieve a credible decision‐making process, it is therefore advisable to have a balanced mix of members in any urban regeneration project decision making panel. Also, the framework developed in this study can be used to facilitate the decision making process in the future project.
Originality/value
This paper is the first attempt to explore the relative importance of various criteria for the decision‐making process in urban regeneration projects perceived by different professionals.
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1. Beyond the All in One. Suppose you had a machine that enabled you to wash your clothes, watch television programmes, listen to the radio, play CDs, and cook the dinner: would…
Abstract
1. Beyond the All in One. Suppose you had a machine that enabled you to wash your clothes, watch television programmes, listen to the radio, play CDs, and cook the dinner: would you give it house‐room for long? There seems to be emerging a view among IT pundits that the era of the all‐in‐one Personal Computer is passing, to give way to a the use of a range of digital devices dedicated to specific functions. It is in this context that that hoary old concept, the electronic book, is allegedly finding its spot in the sun — after years of being impugned as not at all suitable for the beach.