John Meehan, Karon Meehan and Adam Richards
To develop a model that bridges the gap between CSR definitions and strategy and offers guidance to managers on how to connect socially committed organisations with the growing…
Abstract
Purpose
To develop a model that bridges the gap between CSR definitions and strategy and offers guidance to managers on how to connect socially committed organisations with the growing numbers of ethically aware consumers to simultaneously achieve economic and social objectives.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper offers a critical evaluation of the theoretical foundations of corporate responsibility (CR) and proposes a new strategic approach to CR, which seeks to overcome the limitations of normative definitions. To address this perceived issue, the authors propose a new processual model of CR, which they refer to as the 3C‐SR model.
Findings
The 3C‐SR model can offer practical guidelines to managers on how to connect with the growing numbers of ethically aware consumers to simultaneously achieve economic and social objectives. It is argued that many of the redefinitions of CR for a contemporary audience are normative exhortations (“calls to arms”) that fail to provide managers with the conceptual resources to move from “ought” to “how”.
Originality/value
The 3C‐SR model offers a novel approach to CR in so far as it addresses strategy, operations and markets in a single framework.
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Bob Doherty, John Meehan and Adam Richards
The purpose of this paper is to gain a greater depth of understanding of both the pressures and barriers for embedding responsible management education (RME) within business and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to gain a greater depth of understanding of both the pressures and barriers for embedding responsible management education (RME) within business and management schools.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper utilises a longitudinal case study design of six business/management schools.
Findings
This research identifies a set of institutional pressures and barriers for RME in the business schools selected. First, the pressures appear to come from a number of external business school sources and the barriers from a series of organisational resource and individual factors.
Research limitations/implications
RME cannot be seen as just a bolt on. The orientation needs to change to view RME as requiring a shift in culture/purpose/identity. Due to the barriers this will require systemic organisational change at all levels and an organisational change process to bring about implementation.
Practical implications
The results clearly show these market pressures are no passing fad. Failure to respond in a systemic way will mean business schools will run into serious problems with legitimacy.
Originality/value
This paper fulfils a need for an in depth study of a number of business schools to identify the barriers to RME. This is now a critical issue for schools and this research has provided a number of practical recommendations which will help business schools overcome the identified barriers.
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The Amelia Frances Howard‐Gibbon medal of the Canadian Library Association, established in 1971 to honour outstanding illustrators of Canadian children's books, has been awarded…
Abstract
The Amelia Frances Howard‐Gibbon medal of the Canadian Library Association, established in 1971 to honour outstanding illustrators of Canadian children's books, has been awarded this year to William Kurelek for A Prairie Boy's Summer, published in Montreal by Tundra Books. Kurelek was born near Whitford in Alberta but spent most of his early life in a Ukrainian farming community in Manitoba and his illustrations vividly capture life on a prairie farm in the '30s.
Deepika Swain, Lalatendu Kesari Jena, Sanket Sunand Dash and Rama Shankar Yadav
The purpose of this paper is to empirically exhibit the moderating effect of learner interaction (LI) on motivation to learn (MTL), mobile learning (ML) and online learning…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to empirically exhibit the moderating effect of learner interaction (LI) on motivation to learn (MTL), mobile learning (ML) and online learning climate (OLC), so as to bring in enhanced rigour to the virtual knowledge dissemination during the times of crisis.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 784 valid responses were considered for the confirmatory factor analysis to test the proposed hypotheses.
Findings
The study found that MTL and ML contributed to improved OLC and high LI moderated the positive relationship between MTL, ML and OLC. LI also directly contributed to an improved OLC.
Practical implications
Measures need to be designed to crowbar motivation to ensure heightened interaction of learners, to gear up the ML reach soaring heights achieving a dynamic OLC. Acclimatization of the OLC will be the visionary solution to tackle learning disruption during today’s pandemic times and also many other challenges to come in near-far future.
Originality/value
The current study established the moderating role of LI in influencing OLC, and also motivating facilitator’s for designing upgraded content, and thereby fuelling the intention to learn.
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Colette Russell and Joanne Meehan
In the UK, major IT public procurement projects regularly fail at significant cost to the taxpayer. The prevalence of these failures presents scholars with a challenge; to both…
Abstract
In the UK, major IT public procurement projects regularly fail at significant cost to the taxpayer. The prevalence of these failures presents scholars with a challenge; to both understand their genesis and to facilitate learning and prevention. Functional approaches have revealed numerous determinants of failure ranging from procurement specifications to risk escalation, but true and definitive causes remain elusive. However, since failure is not itself an absolute truth, but rather a concept which is reached when support is withdrawn, the survival of a project depends on there being sufficient belief in its legitimacy. We use critical hermeneutic methods and the conceptual lens of legitimacy to reveal powerful legitimating influences that enable and constrain action, but which are not analysed in the retrospective government inquiries that determine lessons learned.
Edward Timmons, Brian Meehan, Andrew Meehan and John Hazenstab
The purpose of this paper is to document the changes in low- and moderate-income occupational licensing over time.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to document the changes in low- and moderate-income occupational licensing over time.
Design/methodology/approach
Using US state level data, the authors document the rise in occupational licensing for low- and moderate-income occupations over the 1993-2012 period.
Findings
States averaged 32 additional low- and moderate-income occupations licensed over this period. Louisiana added the most licenses with 59 new licenses for these occupations, while Oklahoma and Kentucky only added 15 licenses for these low- and moderate-income occupations.
Originality/value
These data have not been documented before and should provide useful for future research into occupational licensing.
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Timmy Frawley, Annabel Meehan and Aoife De Brún
The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of organisational and structural change on the evolution of quality and safety in health organisations, specifically in mental…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of organisational and structural change on the evolution of quality and safety in health organisations, specifically in mental health services.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews. In total, 25 executive management team members in both public and private mental health services were interviewed and data were analysed using Burnard’s framework.
Findings
Three overarching themes emerged: organisational characteristics, leadership and accountability; sustaining collaboration and engagement with stakeholders; and challenges to and facilitators of quality and safety. Taken together, the findings speak to the disruptive and disorienting impact of on-going organisational change and restructuring on leaders’ ability to focus on, and advance, the quality and safety agenda.
Research limitations/implications
Typical with qualitative research of this nature, the potentially limited generalisability of the findings must be acknowledged.
Practical implications
There is a need for strategies to implement change that are informed by evidence and theory and informed by decades of research on this topic, rather than introduced ad hoc. Change agents must pair effective change management and implementation science strategies to specific contexts, depending on what is being implemented and ensure appropriate evaluation of organisational change to bolster the evidence base around quality and safety and inform future decision-making.
Originality/value
The study explores an identified gap in the literature on the impact of on-going organisational re-structuring and transformation on the evolution of quality and safety in mental health services.
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This chapter reports on the “CEO’s-eye-view” of the 1990 financial crisis at Citibank using unique data from CEO John Reed’s private archives. This qualitative analysis sheds…
Abstract
This chapter reports on the “CEO’s-eye-view” of the 1990 financial crisis at Citibank using unique data from CEO John Reed’s private archives. This qualitative analysis sheds light on questions that have perennially plagued executives and intrigued scholars: How do organizations change routines in order to overcome inertia in the face of radical change in the environment? And, specifically, what is the role of the CEO in this process? Inertial behavior in such circumstances has been attributed to ingrained routines that are based on cognitive and motivational truces. Routines are performed because organizational participants find them to cohere to a particular cognitive frame about what should be done (the cognitive dimension) and to resolve conflicts about what gets rewarded or sanctioned (the motivational dimension). The notion of a “truce” explains how routines are “routinely” activated. Routines are inertial because the dissolution of the truce would be inconsistent with frames held by organizational participants and fraught with the risk of unleashing unmanageable conflict among interests in the organization. Thus, the challenge for the CEO in making intended change is both to break the existing truce and to remake a new one. In this study, I uncover how the existing organizational truce led to the crisis at Citibank, why Reed’s initial attempts to respond failed, and how he ultimately found ways to break out of the old truce and establish new routines that helped the bank survive. These findings offer insight into the cognitive and motivational microfoundations of macro theories about organizational response to radical change.
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Joanne Meehan and David J Bryde
The purpose of this paper is to report on a field-level examination of the adoption of sustainable procurement in social housing. It explores the role of regulation and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to report on a field-level examination of the adoption of sustainable procurement in social housing. It explores the role of regulation and procurement consortia in sustainable procurement.
Design/methodology/approach
The study employs a case study of the UK social housing sector and uses an online survey (n=116) of UK Housing Associations. Factor analysis identifies three parsimonious dimensions of sustainable procurement. Attitudinal data are analysed to explore the field-level adoption of sustainable procurement and the role of consortia.
Findings
The results delineate sustainable procurement activities into three factors; direction setting, supplier-centric assurance and local socially oriented supply. High yet sup-optimal levels of sustainable procurement activity are revealed. Prevailing attitudes identify positive commitments to sustainable procurement at individual, organisational and sector levels. The value of network collaboration is identified. Tenants as critical stakeholders do not prioritise sustainable procurement creating challenge for inclusivity. Regulators are seen to a have low level of sustainable procurement knowledge and procurement consortia a high perceived knowledge.
Research limitations/implications
Results provide insight into the effect of sustainable procurement policy, the role of regulators and network structures and consortia, raising issues around legitimacy, coopetition, stakeholder engagement, performance measurement, and functional/sectoral maturity.
Social implications
The identification of the potential exclusion of tenants in sustainability debates is particularly significant to deliver social value.
Originality/value
The relative newness of the social housing sector and its quasi-public sector status provides an original contribution to the consortia and sustainable procurement literatures.