Robert MacIntosh, Nic Beech, Juli McQueen and Ian Reid
This paper explores the practicalities of organizational change in complex settings where much change has already occurred. It therefore offers insights into tackling and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper explores the practicalities of organizational change in complex settings where much change has already occurred. It therefore offers insights into tackling and overcoming change fatigue.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses a longitudinal study of change within a healthcare organization. The paper draws on interviews, focus groups and observations during a 2.5‐year long action research project.
Findings
The paper reports findings on the speed at which change takes place, the importance of communication and the burden placed on senior officers during such communication and consultation processes, the use of appropriate external resources and expertise, the benefits of sharing best practice across sectors and the role of academic researchers in change processes.
Originality/value
The paper offers valuable insights to those charged with effecting organizational change in change fatigued settings.
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The purpose of this paper is to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.
Design/methodology/approach
This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments.
Findings
Using external resources to target specific gaps in expertise can help to maintain momentum though there are always difficulties with both securing the funds to use external help and in implanting external advisors into complex organizational contexts. Looking beyond the narrow confines of your own organizational setting can offer both sources of reassurance and inspiration. The NHS managers in this project derived real benefits from full and frank discussions with colleagues in other public and private sector organizations.
Practical implications
Provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.
Originality/value
The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy‐to digest format.
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The purpose of this paper is to distinguish the main features of the outburst of student radicalism at Sydney University in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to distinguish the main features of the outburst of student radicalism at Sydney University in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper traces developments in student politics at Sydney University from the 1950s onwards, in both the Australian and international context.
Findings
The rise of the New Left was a moderate process in 1967 but became more energetic in 1969. This was aligned with a similar trajectory with the marches by radical opponents of the Vietnam war. The New Left: provided challenges to the university curriculum (in Arts and Economics) and challenged middle‐class values. Many components of the New Left claimed to be Marxist, but many such components rejected the Marxist commitment to the working class and communist parties.
Research limitations/implications
The investigation is limited to Sydney University.
Originality/value
Although the endnotes list numerous references, these are largely specific. Very few general surveys of the New Left at Sydney University have been published.
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This paper examines the Random Walk Hypothesis (RWH) for aggregate New Zealand share market returns, as well as the CRSP NYSE‐AMEX (USA) index during the 1980‐2001 period. Using…
Abstract
This paper examines the Random Walk Hypothesis (RWH) for aggregate New Zealand share market returns, as well as the CRSP NYSE‐AMEX (USA) index during the 1980‐2001 period. Using several indices, we rely on the variance‐ratio test and find evidence to support the rejection of the RWH with some evidence of a momentum effect. However, we find evidence to suggest the behaviour of share prices to be time‐dependent in New Zealand. For example, we find the indices tested were closer to random after the 1987 share market crash. Further analysis showed even stronger results for periods subsequent to the passage of the Companies Act 1993 and the Financial Reporting Act 1993. We also find evidence that indices based on large capitalisation stocks are more likely to follow a random walk compared to those based on smaller stocks. For the USA index, we find stronger evidence of random behaviour in our sample period compared to the earlier period examined by Lo and Mackinlay (1988)
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The literature on non-traditional classroom environments claims that the changed emphasis in higher education teaching from the lecturer to students has intensified the global…
Abstract
The literature on non-traditional classroom environments claims that the changed emphasis in higher education teaching from the lecturer to students has intensified the global focus on student-centred learning, prompting colleges and universities globally to introspect, re-examine, and re-structure their pedagogical approaches in an attempt to align with national educational policies, and to position themselves favourably with potential students in an increasingly competitive higher education environment. This is an environment that now relies heavily on digital learning technologies, which has provoked scholars such as Heick (2012) to perceive the change to the virtual as one that makes higher education institutions accessible from anywhere – in the cloud, at home, in the workplace, or restaurant. The COVID-19 crisis has reinforced the need for this flexibility. These forces have put universities and colleges under pressure to implement new teaching approaches in non-traditional classroom settings that are appropriate for, and responsive to, the COVID-19 crisis and students in terms of learning and social support. This chapter identified and appraised key teaching approaches. It is evident that there are three key teaching approaches that higher education institutions have adopted for delivering learning in an emergency and in a student-centred fashion. The three approaches, which include the time and place dispersion, transactional distance, and collaborative learning approaches, embrace social support because they are grounded in social constructivism. Academics need to be fully committed to the role of social support giving – that is, emotional, instrumental, informational, and appraisal support – in order to foster student wellbeing and cognitive development as students learn together but apart in non-traditional classrooms. The hurried manner in which teaching and learning practices in many higher education institutions have been moved to the online format has led academics to violate many key principles of the approaches they have adopted. And this situation is borne out in the case study discussed in Chapter 8 of this volume. A review of current remote teaching and learning practices is required if academics are to embrace the full principles of the approaches that are appropriate for teaching and learning in non-traditional classroom contexts.
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During the late 1980s New Zealand, in common with a number of other nations, underwent a controversial restructuring of its public sector, including education. The radical nature…
Abstract
Purpose
During the late 1980s New Zealand, in common with a number of other nations, underwent a controversial restructuring of its public sector, including education. The radical nature of education reform was to be epitomised in the documents Administering for Excellence (the Picot report), and the Labour Government's official response, Tomorrow's Schools. The publication of these documents, however, tended to polarize New Zealand's education sector and the public at large into opposite and opposing camps. This paper aims to address these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
In producing a step‐by‐step analysis of the techniques of persuasion employed during a crucial period of New Zealand's educational history, it will be shown how many of the arguments presented during this time have continued to shape the way we view the educational reforms and their impact more than 20 years later.
Findings
It will be demonstrated that the nature and style of propaganda on both sides was highly sophisticated, expressly aimed at building a constituency that was either supportive or hostile to reform.
Originality/value
This paper is perhaps the first to critically examine the nature and role of propaganda in both promoting the educational reforms and in galvanizing resistance to them. In utilising the very considerable amount of hitherto un‐cited documentary material now available, this paper makes a major contribution to education policy research.
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Ruixiang Jiang, Bo Wang, Chunchi Wu and Yue Zhang
This chapter examines the impacts of scheduled announcements of 14 widely followed macroeconomic news on the corporate bond market from July 2002 to June 2017 and documents…
Abstract
This chapter examines the impacts of scheduled announcements of 14 widely followed macroeconomic news on the corporate bond market from July 2002 to June 2017 and documents several new findings. First, good (bad) macroeconomic news tends to have a negative (positive) effect on IG bond returns and a positive (negative) effect on high-yield (HY) bond returns. Second, nonfarm payroll (NFP) appears to be the “King of announcements” for the corporate bond market. Third, while information about revisions of prior releases is incorporated into bond prices on announcement days, future revisions fail to be priced in. Fourth, the news information is thoroughly and quickly reflected in bond prices on the announcement day. Finally, corporate bond volatility increases on announcement days, whereas the Zero Lower Bound (ZLB) policy has little effect on conditional volatility.