Mark J. Ahn, Kathryn Sutherland and Rebecca Bednarek
This paper seeks to demonstrate the value and critical importance of negotiating skills within the wider context of “employability”. It posits that the intensity, rich context…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to demonstrate the value and critical importance of negotiating skills within the wider context of “employability”. It posits that the intensity, rich context, and ambiguity of juxtaposing ancient and modern cases provides a creative, engaging format to stimulate learning about negotiating and power among parties.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is the culmination of teaching undergraduate and graduate business students, as well as continuing education courses, in the USA and New Zealand respectively. The authors developed a participatory, mixed‐mode educational simulation. Using thematic analysis of student survey responses, they summarize learning points associated with the suggested teaching case.
Findings
An analysis of post‐exercise questions suggested six key themes identified by students: value of leadership, self‐knowledge, maturity, and judgment; need for creativity, versatility, and adaptability in bridging differences; focus on settlement (rather than absolute win‐lose scenarios); managing risk due to uncertainty and unidentified incentives among participants; dire consequences of inflexibility, self‐righteousness, and unhealthy ego; and need for increasing negotiating skill proficiency is valuable and timeless.
Practical implications
The outlined teaching case is put forward as providing a creative, interesting and rich format to stimulate learning about negotiating and power among parties, as well as team dynamics.
Originality/value
The paper outlines a novel teaching tool that allows students to learn and appreciate the dynamics of negotiating in complex environments.
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This chapter makes a case for Adam Smith’s description of the market as a moral exemplar. More specifically, it argues that the behavior of the individual agents who inhabit…
Abstract
Purpose
This chapter makes a case for Adam Smith’s description of the market as a moral exemplar. More specifically, it argues that the behavior of the individual agents who inhabit Smith’s market is indeed morally exemplary.
Methodology/approach
The basis for this argument is that economic self-interest drives market participants to look beyond any inherent prejudice or tendency to discriminate on the basis of preconceived opinions or beliefs. Some historical context is provided that illustrates conservative opposition to this perspective from unlikely sources.
A simple moral framework is created to provide one possible representation of Smith’s interpretation of the market. In this framework self-interest is characterized as a “trump” that overcomes potential prejudices. It is further argued that this framework can be considered a moral exemplar, and that it is also important in facilitating exchange between participants.
Findings
The central argument is tested when the self-interest criterion is exposed to competition from the alternative moral value of altruism. The moral framework presented, and the principle of economic self-interest in particular, is resilient against this moral challenge.
Social implications
The social implications of this argument relate directly to our normative understanding of how individuals should behave in a market context. The chapter establishes a link between this moral framework and the functioning of the market.
Originality/value of paper
The chapter is original in its attempt to defend the underlying morality of Smith’s market without recourse to his other works, such as the Theory of Moral Sentiments. It also links an understanding of market egalitarianism with a broader moral framework of market activity. Furthermore, it offers a clarification of why economic self-interest, and not altruism, is the appropriate motivation for market activity.
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Following restructuring at Oxford Brookes University Library, several functional groups – including a marketing group – were established. The marketing group’s successes include a…
Abstract
Following restructuring at Oxford Brookes University Library, several functional groups – including a marketing group – were established. The marketing group’s successes include a highly effective outreach programme at Freshers’ Fair. Learning from its first stall in 2000, the group’s 2001 campaign focused on promoting the newly re‐launched Library Web site. The Inspiration Campaign used striking images of Newton’s apple, Rodin’s The Thinker, a penny dropping and a light bulb plus the message “inspiration … available now from the library” to promote the library’s Web address. This message was reinforced by library staff giving out apples and stickers at Freshers’ Fair. The campaign proved highly successful with the number of hits on the site tripling in a year. The Inspiration Campaign was entered in the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP)/Emerald Public Relations and Publicity Awards for a “promotional campaign with a budget under £500”. The Inspiration Campaign won.
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Johannes (Joost) Platje and Remko Kampen
The purpose of this paper is to apply club good theory to challenges in climate justice and to identify the opportunities for creating a club of countries or regions to support…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to apply club good theory to challenges in climate justice and to identify the opportunities for creating a club of countries or regions to support climate justice and/or mitigate climate change, as well as the threats that such clubs could lead to the real exclusion of large parts of the world from climate justice.
Design/methodology/approach
A theoretical analysis is provided regarding the conditions for creating a club for climate change mitigation. Indicators of good governance and trust, as well as the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Index (ND-GAIN), are used to assess the capacity for creating such a club.
Findings
While opportunities for achieving climate justice are identified, climate change mitigation is likely to be at most a club good at the global level, thus excluding the most vulnerable countries, regions and groups of people. Although the threats of climate change may be acknowledged, they are easily neglected. Economic growth is likely to be a condition for economic sustainability, which in turn tends to be a condition for environmental sustainability. Decision makers should be conscious of the potential danger of creating a club for climate change mitigation based on the belief that economic growth and technology will solve these problems, as such a club is likely to be either unsustainable, or very small, while deepening existing injustice.
Originality/value
The authors provide an overview of the complexity of issues involved, to gain an appreciation of the vast, perhaps insurmountable, challenges facing climate justice. A club good approach is applied to issues of climate justice, emphasizing the limitations of the all-inclusiveness of climate justice and sustainable development.
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Philip Whitehead and Paul Crawshaw
This article aims to critically explore current forms of neoliberalism and their impact upon the moral economy. The authors examine how the dominant neoliberal political economy…
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to critically explore current forms of neoliberalism and their impact upon the moral economy. The authors examine how the dominant neoliberal political economy impacts upon three overlapping registers: individual subjectivity, national reconstructions and organizational transformations. These three registers are fashioned by, and subsequently help to reproduce, the contours of the prevailing politico-economic system. The market-driven ethic of neoliberalism, however, is diametrically opposed to that of a moral economy concerned with universalism and equality in meeting human need.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a conceptual theoretical piece.
Findings
The result is that the latter have been replaced by competitive individualism as societies reconstruct themselves in the image of the market place. This profound cultural shift is well known, but in this article, the authors will claim that it has in turn had a profound impact upon individual subjectivities and the key institutions and organisations that have long formed the basis of the Western social democratic consensus.
Originality/value
It is original because it theorises the impact of neoliberalism on organisations.
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This paper revisits existing regulatory approaches in tackling the practices of bogus and extravagant company directors' remuneration packages, often called “fat cat packages”…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper revisits existing regulatory approaches in tackling the practices of bogus and extravagant company directors' remuneration packages, often called “fat cat packages” which erode company capital and dividend return to shareholders. It explores the efficacy of existing rules, pointing out their inadequacy and ineffectiveness. It emphasizes the need to hold directors accountable to shareholders for remuneration received. The object is to proffer a more comprehensive and effective regulatory regime for directors' remuneration packages.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is analytical, reviewing several literature and case law on the subject. It adopts a comparative approach drawly primarily from the Nigerian Companies and Allied Matters Act 2004 which is compared in critical areas with the provisions of the English Companies Act 1985 and 2006.
Findings
The analysis concludes that existing rules monitoring directors' remunerations packages are ineffective. The rules do not address directors' pecks, expenses and other perquisites of office. Often these pecks are more valuable to the director than the actual remuneration package and they constitute a veritable avenue for dissipating company capital. The articles also finds that audit committees and their members are presently not subjected to any liability rules for their role as financial gate keepers verifying the performance of the accounting and audit functions.
Practical implications
The article points out that until regulations are formulated to regulate or cap directors' pecks and expenses, there exists ample room for fraudulent dissipation of company resources resulting in blotted costs of administration and reduced rewards for shareholders. It also advocates the need to subject audit committees to a higher regime of liability in public companies.
Originality/value
The paper draws the attention of scholars, law reformers and law enforcement agencies to the inadequacies of the rules regulating directors' remuneration packages and suggests additional rules. It will certainly incite further scholarly discussion and challenge law reformers to address the issues raised in several jurisdictions.
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Leanne Weber, Jarrett Blaustein, Kathryn Benier, Rebecca Wickes and Diana Johns