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Article
Publication date: 1 March 2003

Janet M. Alger and Steven F. Alger

Ever since Mead, sociology has maintained a deep divide between human and non human animals. In effect, Mead constructed humans as having capacities that he saw lacking in…

1939

Abstract

Ever since Mead, sociology has maintained a deep divide between human and non human animals. In effect, Mead constructed humans as having capacities that he saw lacking in animals. Recent research on animals has challenged the traditional ideas of Mead and others by providing evidence of animal intelligence, adaptability, selfawareness, emotionality, communication and culture. This paper examines the human‐animal relationship as presented in Introductory Sociology Textbooks to see if this new research on animals has allowed us to move beyond Mead. We find outdated information and confused thinking on such topics as the relationship between language and culture, the development of the self in animals, and the role of instinct, socialization and culture in animal behavior. We conclude that, with few exceptions, the main function of the treatment of animals in these texts is to affirm the hard line that sociology has always drawn between humans and other species.

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International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 23 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

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Article
Publication date: 16 January 2007

Virginia W. Gerde, Michael G. Goldsby and Jon M. Shepard

In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Max Weber chronicled how seventeenth‐century religious tenets expounded by John Calvin inadvertently laid the ideological…

2331

Abstract

Purpose

In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Max Weber chronicled how seventeenth‐century religious tenets expounded by John Calvin inadvertently laid the ideological groundwork for the flourishing of eighteenth‐century capitalism. In this early work on the rise of capitalism, Weber examined the changes in attitudes of business and accepted ethical business behavior and the transition of justification from religious tenets and guidance to more secular, yet rational explanations. The purpose of this paper is to contend this transition from religious to secular moral cover for business ethics was aided by the harmony‐of‐interests doctrine, which provided moral, but secular, cover for the pursuit of self‐interest and personal wealth with an implicit, secular rationalization of promoting the public good.

Design/methodology/approach

Although Weber used Benjamin Franklin as an exemplar of the earlier Calvinist Protestantism and spirit of capitalism, advocates a case study of Robert Keayne, a seventeenth‐century Boston Puritan Merchant, as being more appropriate for Weber's thesis. The paper uses passages from Keanye's will to illustrate the seventeenth‐century Protestant ethic and spirit of capitalism, Franklin's writings to illustrate the eighteenth‐century Protestant ethic and spirit of capitalism, and various historical prose to demonstrate the legitimation of the harmony‐of‐interests doctrine which allowed for the secular moral cover for the pursuit of capitalism in the following centuries.

Findings

The original (seventeenth‐century) spirit of capitalism identified by Weber is reflected in the rational way in which Keayne conducted his business affairs and in the extent to which his business behavior mirrored Calvinist tenets.

Originality/value

This earlier spirit of capitalism is important in setting the stage for the emergence of the eighteenth‐century spirit of capitalism embodied in Franklin as seen through his writings of acceptable and moral behavior without the use of explicit religious explanations.

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Journal of Management History, vol. 13 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1751-1348

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Article
Publication date: 1 November 2005

Aimee Bui and Brian H. Kleiner

The worlds of literature and business are as different as they get. While literature often revels in the artistic and abstract aspects, business focuses on the more practical and…

871

Abstract

The worlds of literature and business are as different as they get. While literature often revels in the artistic and abstract aspects, business focuses on the more practical and realistic facets of life. Literature talks ideas, business speaks money. Writers express themselves with words, business men prove themselves through numbers. Former US President Calvin Coolidge once exclaimed, “The business of America is business. Not Art!” (West brook, 1980:1). However, this difference is, at most, on the surface. Literature and business intertwine on more perspectives than one might think. For example, there are traces of corporate capitalism in Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle in which workers are portrayed as “slaves to the economic system” (Watts, 1982:77). Or Joseph Heller’s Something Happened depicts the harsh rules of business by which any one who is not contributing efficiently to the success of a company will be discarded, also known as corporate Darwinism (Horner, 1992:27). Or in Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, with a humourous tone, medieval England is modernised with various economic measures, such as new currency, stock exchange in the court, and full‐time employment for the knights, and hence saved from financial ruins (West brook, 1980:49). In other words, literature has been drawing inspirations from the financial market. Therefore, it might not be surprising if there are major themes in literature than can be applied to the corporate world. In fact, managers at all levels can learn valuable lessons for the many areas of business from literature.

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Management Research News, vol. 28 no. 11/12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0140-9174

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Article
Publication date: 1 June 1991

Walter R. Heinz

Melvin Seeman (1989) has recently stated that nowadays the concept of alienation carries an antiquated meaning which is quite in contrast to its importance in the 1960s. There…

419

Abstract

Melvin Seeman (1989) has recently stated that nowadays the concept of alienation carries an antiquated meaning which is quite in contrast to its importance in the 1960s. There seems to be much evidence for a fading romance with alienation in the social sciences. I have continued Seeman's search for articles that have appeared between 1978 and 1982 in leading social science journals until 1989. There was only one major reference, however, a quite important one by Kai T. Erikson in his presidential address to the American Sociological Association in 1985. Contrary to these disappointing observations Seeman suggests that alienation is leading an underground life in contemporary research and theory. According to his assessment this theme survives because the assumptions involved in the tradition of the alienation motif are indispensable for critical analysis in sociology and psychology.

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International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 11 no. 6/7/8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

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Article
Publication date: 21 November 2016

Jon Maskaly and Wesley Jennings

The purpose of this paper is to attempt to replicate Engel’s (2001) styles of supervision using data from a new sample and including additional independent variables.

357

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to attempt to replicate Engel’s (2001) styles of supervision using data from a new sample and including additional independent variables.

Design/methodology/approach

The data were collected from a sample of police supervisors (N=369) at three distinct locations throughout the USA. Bivariate analyses and ordinary least squares regression were used to analyze the data.

Findings

The authors find three of Engel’s four supervisory styles and find largely consistent results, with the exception of gender. Further, the authors find strong evidence for persistent agency-level effects.

Originality/value

Supervisory styles are important to consider, especially when trying to effectively control the behavior of subordinates. While this study cannot address the impact of organizational differences, the consistent agency-level effects suggest this as something that should be considered again in future research.

Details

Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, vol. 39 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1363-951X

Keywords

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Book part
Publication date: 24 July 2014

Abstract

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Advances in Librarianship
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78350-469-5

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Article
Publication date: 1 February 1986

Ruth Friedman

The study of birth defects has increased in importance in recent years because the rate of infant mortality due to other causes (such as infection and nutritional disease) has…

109

Abstract

The study of birth defects has increased in importance in recent years because the rate of infant mortality due to other causes (such as infection and nutritional disease) has decreased more quickly than has the rate of deaths due to birth defects. Today, abnormalities are detected in approximately 3 percent of newborn humans, and twice as many prenatally acquired defects are found in children after infancy as are discovered at birth. In addition, many of the more than 500,000 miscarriages and stillbirths that occur each year in the United States are due to abnormal fetal development.

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Reference Services Review, vol. 14 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0090-7324

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Book part
Publication date: 19 February 2020

Abstract

Details

Innovation and the Arts: The Value of Humanities Studies for Business
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78973-886-5

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Article
Publication date: 1 January 1990

Mark N. Wexler

To those concerned with challenges and challengers to conventional wisdom, the entirely credible perception of ours as a planet in the midst of a deep environmental crisis offers…

178

Abstract

To those concerned with challenges and challengers to conventional wisdom, the entirely credible perception of ours as a planet in the midst of a deep environmental crisis offers fruitful grounds for analysis. Crises stimulate those who have, in the existence of the crisis, firm proof that the wisdom which girds the status quo is deficient and/or those who apply it are. This is particularly true when the crisis is perceived to be grave and dread‐laden. Skin cancer due to the depletion of the ozone layer is on the increase. Large, at times devastating, climate changes are loose upon the planet. Whether given quasi‐ scientific names like the “greenhouse effect” or lumped together in a melange of “acid rain”, “toxic waste” and “industrial cancers”, the result is the same. Rational citizens of the everyday‐person‐on‐the‐street sort feel threatened. The threat is given shape and substance by the mass media. The environmental crisis is a credible crisis. One need not list radical political activism as one's vocation to list the environmental crisis as one of one's fears as we enter the 1990's.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 10 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

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Book part
Publication date: 1 January 2005

Naresh K. Malhotra

Abstract

Details

Review of Marketing Research
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-85724-723-0

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