Those of us who are advocates of change are now very much at the receiving end as far as the training scene is concerned. Against all the rules of good change management however…
Abstract
Those of us who are advocates of change are now very much at the receiving end as far as the training scene is concerned. Against all the rules of good change management however, there is a noticeable absence of direction and we are left in a period of uncertainty and confusion. Most of the ITBs are on their way out and the MSC is promoting a New Training Initiative which may well prove useful in providing certain key skills in the future but is unlikely to make a significant impact in tackling urgently the national disease of poor business productivity. As a result, the ball is now firmly back in the hands of management. For those who are brave enough to take up the cudgels, there is a golden opportunity to bring a new sense of purpose to training.
The purpose of this paper is to examine the forces and actors that shaped urban development in a mid‐sized Canadian city over a half century.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the forces and actors that shaped urban development in a mid‐sized Canadian city over a half century.
Design/methodology/approach
This case study adopts a qualitative research approach based on government documents, planning studies, the media and non‐governmental organization sources to examine the applicability of regime theory versus growth coalition theory in the Canadian context.
Findings
The paper concludes that the broader urban agenda in Saint John, with its focus on economic competitiveness, has been shaped by shifting growth coalitions supported by both the private and public sectors.
Research limitations/implications
One limitation is that analysis is based mainly on documentary evidence and the public statements of elected officials and business interests. Future research would attempt to conduct oral interviews with representative informants.
Practical implications
One practical implication for urban researchers is the need to look beyond electoral politics and partisanship in order to understand how urban development is shaped in the medium and long term. The research findings suggest also the need for informed citizens to adopt a more critical stance to business and political leaders, and to the local media, in their own communities.
Originality/value
This paper is one of the few to address the politics of urban development in Saint John, New Brunswick's largest city. It also contributes to the literature on regionalism and mid‐sized cities.
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Keywords
In an age of information technology some developing countries are more vulnerable than others to international competition through failure to utilize fully the benefits of an ICT…
Abstract
Purpose
In an age of information technology some developing countries are more vulnerable than others to international competition through failure to utilize fully the benefits of an ICT culture. The authors suggest that the strategies in response must include a radical review of attitudes and methods of delivery of ICT in schools and give as an example the recent experience of The City School, the nationwide schools’ organisation in Pakistan with whom they are employed.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors review the current position of ICT in schools in Pakistan and suggest as a model of development, for schools of a corresponding standing, that of The City School. They describe how The City School responded to ICT, ensuring that all its pupils would have access to the most modern of ICT courses. Discusses how the decision to implement a complete change, or revolution, in teaching ICT was brought about in a relatively short time. It discusses the nature of the programme, how it was organised, the materials required and the outcomes of its implementation including its outstanding success with pupils and their parents.
Findings
The authors chronicle the historical developments within The City School that brought about radical change within a comparatively short period and identify careful planning, training, and the motivation of stakeholders, i.e. pupils, teachers and parents, as key elements in its successful implementation.
Originality/value
The authors suggest that The City School experience provides a model that may be emulated by schools elsewhere in both developing and industrially developed countries.
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This paper aims to examine how evangelical teachers’ religious identities influence their interpretation and teaching of texts in high school English Language Arts classrooms…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine how evangelical teachers’ religious identities influence their interpretation and teaching of texts in high school English Language Arts classrooms. Further, this paper examines how evangelical teachers make choices about how to balance the demands of their religious and teacher identities as they interact with texts in their own classrooms.
Design/methodology/approach
Using Derridean deconstruction of the concept of ethical decision-making, the author uses critical discourse analysis to examine a conversation between two evangelical teachers as they talk about the tensions they feel as they teach The Crucible with their high school–aged students.
Findings
The findings show evangelical teachers’ religious and teaching identities were in tension across three themes: literary analytic frameworks, authorial intent and eternal truths and evangelism and fellowship.
Originality/value
By highlighting how evangelical teachers’ religious and teaching identities influence their classroom decisions, teaching practices and textual interpretations, this study offers another pathway through which teacher educators and researchers might examine the connection between teachers’ religious and teaching identities with the intent to invite more complexity into literary analysis.
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Companies with global ambitions need to pay close attention to how innovation is achieved in India. In particular, corporate leaders still have much to learn about how this…
Abstract
Purpose
Companies with global ambitions need to pay close attention to how innovation is achieved in India. In particular, corporate leaders still have much to learn about how this economic powerhouse is likely to develop in the coming decades and what strategy and innovation plays are most likely to be successful.
Design/methodology/approach
This “Masterclass” examines the lessons from three important recent books that offer valuable insights on how Indian businesses are addressing the innovation challenge: Conquering the Chaos by Ravi Venkatesan, former Chairman of Cummins India and Microsoft India, identifies the leadership blueprint for creating most value in this and similar emerging “VUCCA” markets. India Inside by Nirmalya Kumar and Phanish Puranam discovers a significant opportunity and challenge – India's rapid emergence as a global hub of innovation. Reverse Innovation by Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble presents an alternative strategy to “glocalization” as a more promising way to drive global growth, using emerging markets like India as the innovation platform.
Findings
The article looks at why only 25 to 30 of the more than 1,300 major multinationals currently operating in India have made it into the “high-growth trajectory, market leadership” category within that country.
Practical implications
Every company with global ambitions would now be well advised to make to make innovation in India central to their own ambitions, so that they might become the global disruptors of the future not the victims.
Originality/value
While most of today's multinational CEOs see pursuing significant market participation in China as a “no-brainer,” rising, or failing to rise, to the challenge of India, with at least as much urgency and commitment, may turn out to be their most “defining” strategic legacy.
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As yet there are no indications that the President of the Local Government Board intends to give the force of law to the recommendations submitted to him by the Departmental…
Abstract
As yet there are no indications that the President of the Local Government Board intends to give the force of law to the recommendations submitted to him by the Departmental Committee appointed by the Board to inquire into the use of preservatives and colouring matters in food. It is earnestly to be hoped that at least some of the recommendations of the Committee will become law. It is in the highest degree objectionable that when a Committee of the kind has been appointed, and has carried out a long and difficult investigation, the recommendations which it finally makes should be treated with indifference and should not be acted upon. If effect should not be given to the views arrived at after the careful consideration given to the whole subject by the Committee, a very heavy responsibility would rest upon the Authorities, and it cannot but be admitted that the Committee ought never to have been appointed if it was not originally intended that its recommendations should be made legally effective. Every sensible person who takes the trouble to study the evidence and the report must come to the conclusion that the enforcement of the recommendations is urgently required upon health considerations alone, and must see that a long‐suffering public is entitled to receive rather more protection than the existing legal enactments can afford. To refrain from legalising the principal recommendations in the face of such evidence and of such a report would almost amount to criminal negligence and folly. We are well aware that the subject is not one that is easily “understanded of the people,” and that the complicated ignorance of various noisy persons who imagine that they have a right to hold opinions upon it is one of the stumbling blocks in the way of reform; but we believe that this ignorance is confined, in the main, to irresponsible individuals, and that the Government Authorities concerned are not going to provide the public with a painful exhibition of incapacity and inaction in connection with the matter. There is some satisfaction in knowing that although the recommendations have not yet passed into law, they can be used with powerful effect in any prosecutions for the offence of food‐drugging which the more enlightened Local Authorities may be willing to institute, since it can no longer be alleged that the question of preservatives is still “under the consideration” of the Departmental Committee, and since it cannot be contended that the recommendations made leave any room for doubt as to the Committee's conclusions.
This paper discusses a model for teaching leadership to first-year students as part of a learning community. It outlines the purpose and structure of the course and presents ideas…
Abstract
This paper discusses a model for teaching leadership to first-year students as part of a learning community. It outlines the purpose and structure of the course and presents ideas for how different disciplines could be combined with leadership in learning communities. Teaching leadership to first-year students as part of a learning community instead of a stand-alone course has two distinct advantages. First, when leadership is taught at the freshman level, the early introduction of the topic allows for the possibility of repetition and reinforcements of the concepts, both of which are essential to learning. Second, by teaching leadership in a learning community, instructors and students are able to apply and integrate the concepts of leadership with other areas, thereby increasing learning and retention.
Clive Bingley, Helen Moss and Clive Martin
YOU WILL HAVE seen, no doubt, recent announcements that my wife and I have sold our book‐publishing business of Clive Bingley Ltd to the Munich‐based firm of international…
Abstract
YOU WILL HAVE seen, no doubt, recent announcements that my wife and I have sold our book‐publishing business of Clive Bingley Ltd to the Munich‐based firm of international reference publishers, Verlag Dokumentation.
Malcolm Neesam, Barbara Palmer Casini, Steve Dolman, Anna Rainford, Kathleen Lockyer and Roman Iwaschkin
THE INTRODUCTION of the pre‐recorded tape cassette in the 1970's made many predict that within ten years there would be no gramophone records or gramophones being marketed, and…
Abstract
THE INTRODUCTION of the pre‐recorded tape cassette in the 1970's made many predict that within ten years there would be no gramophone records or gramophones being marketed, and that the cassette would be the supreme means of distributing recorded sound. Just how wrong that prediction was can be seen in any audio shop in the country, where huge displays of the latest record albums are to be found next to racks of similar cassettes. Far from sounding the knell for records, cassettes have probably been instrumental in furthering their popularity, by way of the spin‐off in technical advances, marketing, and the ease of distribution.
Proctor & Gamble is having difficulties. In July the 156 year old consumer products giant announced that it would be closing 30 of its 147 manufacturing facilities over the next…
Abstract
Proctor & Gamble is having difficulties. In July the 156 year old consumer products giant announced that it would be closing 30 of its 147 manufacturing facilities over the next three years and eliminating 13,000 jobs. One of the reasons for this massive downsizing, as described in the July 26, 1993, issue of Newsweek, is Proctor & Gamble's “proclivity for hanging on to outdated brands.” Coincidentally, in the same issue, Newsweek reported that Apple CEO John Sculley was forced to relinquish his position because the company posted a 1993 third quarter loss of $188 million. The loss and the soft market will force Apple to lay off 16 percent of its 13,000 employees. Some reasons for Apple's problems: soft sales of its primary products and increased competition from Microsoft's Windows. Both Apple and Proctor & Gamble temporarily neglected a traditional factor of marketing: products have life cycles that must be monitored if those products are to produce the required profits and return on investment.