Pallavi Banerjee and Luke Graham
The skillsets of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) graduates are widely recognised to be important for economic prosperity. At the same time, it is broadly…
Abstract
Purpose
The skillsets of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) graduates are widely recognised to be important for economic prosperity. At the same time, it is broadly accepted that in England there is a need to increase the number of people studying STEM degree courses and working in STEM. However, despite decades of interventions post-16, STEM participation rates remain lower than projected requirements. Some research reports suggest a lack of positive attitudes towards these subjects and aspirations amongst some social groups. As these debates continue, official reports such as those released by the Department for Education show these patterns from the labour market and higher education (HE) extend to both attainment and participation in science and math in school.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, the authors summarise the authors' findings from the analysis of official reports, policy documents and major research reports focussing on attainment in school science and math and post-compulsory STEM participation.
Findings
The authors identify the problematic ways in which STEM subject choices are made across the student life cycle and then discuss how the leaky pipeline metaphor can be ambiguous and needs to be used with caution.
Research limitations/implications
Some aspects identified here warrant further research and will be of particular interest to researchers, practitioners and policymakers.
Originality/value
In this new report, the authors identify the problematic ways in which STEM subject choices are made across the student life cycle in England and then discuss how the leaky pipeline metaphor can be ambiguous and needs to be used with caution.
Details
Keywords
This article aims to provide a critical understanding of contextual issues surrounding international business from a political economy of communication perspective.
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to provide a critical understanding of contextual issues surrounding international business from a political economy of communication perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach is based in classical dialectics and proceeds from a Marxian perspective. It includes a literature review of major theorists in political economy of communication and an analysis of present institutional relationships that frame international business in the context of corporatism.
Findings
The main argument is that current practices that dominate international business can no longer be considered as any kind of capitalism and that political economy of communication is necessary for comprehending this system. Current business practices are a form of corporatism in which ownership is separated from control, business is separated from industry, and the idea of a “going concern” is subject to “overriding concerns”. To understand the implications of these factors, political economy of communication needs new theories of value, labour, mediation, and meaning.
Research limitations/implications
The work is limited by the current pace of change, by alternative, non‐Marxist definitions of capitalism which are not taken into account here, and by the variegated nature of global business practices. The work is limited to dominant practices and definitive relationships.
Practical implications
The paper provides a useful perspective for understanding the future direction of international business, specifically in terms of communication, culture, and understandings of value.
Originality/value
This paper offers an alternative, non‐capitalistic view of “globalisation” within a Marxist framework and proposes a new theoretical and analytical synthesis for political economy of communication.
Details
Keywords
Toyin Ajibade Adisa, Emeka Smart Oruh and Babatunde Akanji
Despite the fundamental role of culture in an organisational setting, little is known of how organisational culture can be sometimes determined/influenced by professional culture…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite the fundamental role of culture in an organisational setting, little is known of how organisational culture can be sometimes determined/influenced by professional culture, particularly in the global south. Using Nigeria as a research focus, this article uses critical discuss analysis to examine the link between professional and organisational culture.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses qualitative research approach to establish the significance of professional culture as a determinant of organisational culture among healthcare organisations.
Findings
We found that the medical profession in Nigeria is replete with professional duties and responsibilities, such as professional values and beliefs, professional rules and regulations, professional ethics, eagerness to fulfil the Hippocratic Oath, professional language, professional symbols, medicine codes of practice and societal expectations, all of which conflate to form medical professionals' values, beliefs, assumptions and the shared perceptions and practices upon which the medical professional culture is strongly built. This makes the medical professional culture stronger and more dominant than the healthcare organisational culture.
Research limitations/implications
The extent to which the findings of this research can be generalised is constrained by the limited and selected sample of the research.
Practical implications
The primacy of professional culture over organisational culture may have dysfunctional consequences for human resource management (HRM), as medical practitioners are obliged to stick to medical professional culture over human resources practices. Hence, human resources departments may struggle to cope with the behavioural issues that arise due to the dominant position taken by the medical practitioners. This is because the cultural system (professional culture), which is the configuration of beliefs, perceived values, code of ethics, practices and so forth. shared by medical doctors, subverts the operating system. Therefore, in the case of healthcare organisations, HRM should support and enhance the cultural system (the medical professional culture) by offering compatible operating strategies and practices.
Originality/value
This article provides valuable insights into the link between professional culture and organisational culture. It also enriches debates on organisational culture and professional culture. We, therefore, contend that a strong professional culture can overwhelm and eventually become an organisational culture.
Details
Keywords
Victoria Marshall and Chris Goddard
In this chapter, the authors focus on a range of Australian news articles selected for their relevance to key themes in the area of child abuse and examine two high profile cases…
Abstract
In this chapter, the authors focus on a range of Australian news articles selected for their relevance to key themes in the area of child abuse and examine two high profile cases of child abuse deaths that were extensively reported on by the media and led to system reform. Challenges for media reporting on child abuse in Australia including a changing media landscape, lack of available child abuse data and lack of publicly available serious case reviews are discussed. The authors argue that there is a need for attention to be paid to children's resistance and agency in the context of violence and abuse to counter the objectification of children and uphold their rights. Following Finkelhor (2008), the authors argue that media reporting on child abuse in Australia reflects a general approach to child abuse that is fragmented, with different types of abuse viewed as separate from one another, and call for a more integrated understanding of child abuse. The authors highlight the complexity of media responses to child abuse in Australia, noting that while the social problem of child abuse can be misrepresented by the media, media reporting has also triggered significant systemic reform and advocated for children in cases where other systems failed them.
Details
Keywords
Luke A. Turnock and Honor D. Townshend
With digital spaces an increasing feature of our everyday lives, and the internet now a primary means of sourcing IPEDs and information regarding their use, this chapter seeks to…
Abstract
With digital spaces an increasing feature of our everyday lives, and the internet now a primary means of sourcing IPEDs and information regarding their use, this chapter seeks to understand how digital fitness forum communities shape the dissemination of culturally embedded harm reduction advice. Findings are drawn from two netnographic studies of fitness forums, which identify several key areas in which community norms and structures served to inform harm reduction behaviours. This included embedded forum reputation systems and the ways in which these shaped IPED access, including through elevating ‘expert’ users and encouraging informed discussion regarding product quality, to the emergence of steroid testing services from forums as a community harm reduction tool. Second, forums were observed to often encourage users to conduct research and inform themselves regarding safe use, though limitations to this norm were also documented in relation to poor-quality medical advice, highlighting the issues with IPED users' reliance on anecdotal advice in the contexts of prohibition. Finally, the role of digital fitness forums as ‘digital backstage’ is considered, examining both how this can be harmful to IPED users from excluded or ‘otherised’ groups, but simultaneously offers cultural participants the opportunity for airing vulnerabilities in a space where their masculine identity is not threatened in doing so, thus facilitating harm reduction among cultural ‘insiders’.
Details
Keywords
Rob Kitchin, Paolo Cardullo and Cesare Di Feliciantonio
This chapter provides an introduction to the smart city and engages with its idea and ideals from a critical social science perspective. After setting out in brief the emergence…
Abstract
This chapter provides an introduction to the smart city and engages with its idea and ideals from a critical social science perspective. After setting out in brief the emergence of smart cities and current key debates, we note a number of practical, political, and normative questions relating to citizenship, social justice, and the public good that warrant examination. The remainder of the chapter provides an initial framing for engaging with these questions. The first section details the dominant neoliberal conception and enactment of smart cities and how this works to promote the interests of capital and state power and reshape governmentality. We then detail some of the more troubling ethical issues associated with smart city technologies and initiatives. Having set out some of the more troubling aspects of how social relations are produced within smart cities, we then examine how citizens and citizenship have been conceived and operationalized in the smart city to date. We then follow this with a discussion of social justice and the smart city. In the fifth section, we explore the notion of the “right to the smart city” and how this might be used to recast the smart city in emancipatory and empowering ways. Finally, we set out how the book seeks to answer our questions and extend our initial framing, exploring the extent to which the “right to the city” should be a fundamental principle of smart city endeavors.
Details
Keywords
Graham Frobisher, Deborah Price and Jo Brewis
The 7th decade manager (7DM) is an overlooked and under-researched group in organisation studies. This paper explores the changes which 7DMs experience in later life through the…
Abstract
Purpose
The 7th decade manager (7DM) is an overlooked and under-researched group in organisation studies. This paper explores the changes which 7DMs experience in later life through the lenses of age, work and identity.
Design/methodology/approach
An interpretivist methodology was adopted and data were obtained via semi-structured interviews with 32 managers across 10 different sectors in England and Scotland. These data were analysed thematically.
Findings
Change manifested itself in various contradictory ways across three domains of age, work and identity. Age was experienced dichotomously, with these 7DMs identifying as subjectively younger yet openly (if reluctantly) accepting signs of ageing. They appeared more tolerant and kinder but could be impatient and outspoken. Work remained important, providing structure, a sense of purpose and camaraderie; however, career progression was not. Altruistically, the 7DMs exercised generativity by providing their colleagues with counsel in both work and personal matters. Their sense of self and identity work featured prominently, particularly in the liminality associated with the impending cessation of work. Preparation for the psychosocial transition to retirement was lacking.
Research limitations/implications
This project would have benefitted from a larger and broader cohort demographic. Whether there are any significant gender or ethnic differences in attitudes, values or approaches to work cannot be ascertained from the data obtained. Future studies should therefore include a greater diversity of participants. There may also be merit in investigating if any differences exist for the ex-military 7DM manager compared to others.
Practical implications
Organisations can benefit from greater recognition of the value experienced managers in their later working lives can bring. Both the broader community of managers and their employers would benefit from leveraging the experience, knowledge and attributes of older managers in their passage through their 7th decade and better prepare younger people to succeed them.
Social implications
Different agencies such as government, employers, professional bodies like the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, Trade Unions or consultancies may wish to explore the benefits and practicalities of preparing the individual for the transition to retirement. Importantly, this should address the psychosocial connotations associated with ceasing work. Whilst this applies to all 7th decade workers, we suggest that there are some challenges that are peculiar to being an older manager.
Originality/value
Whilst much is known about older workers, research relating to older managers, especially those in their seventh decade, is largely absent. This paper illustrates the changes and challenges they experience in both their professional and personal lives, some of which seem to be unique to this age group and many of which would benefit from being addressed in organisational policy and practice as well as further research.
Details
Keywords
A memorandum on the Nutritive Value of Milk by the Advisory Committee on Nutrition appointed by the Minister of Health and the Secretary of State for Scotland has now been…
Abstract
A memorandum on the Nutritive Value of Milk by the Advisory Committee on Nutrition appointed by the Minister of Health and the Secretary of State for Scotland has now been published with a prefatory note by Sir Kingsley Wood and Sir Godfrey Collins. The Chairman of the Advisory Committee is Lord Luke, and the members include Professor Cathcart, Sir F. Gowland Hopkins, Professor Mellanby and Sir John Boyd Orr. Its terms of reference are “To inquire into the facts, quantitative and qualitative, in relation to the diet of the people and to report as to any changes herein which appear desirable in the light of modern advances in the knowledge of nutrition.” The memorandum explains the high value of milk as an article of food. Analysis of its composition shows that milk contains protein of high nutritive value, energy‐giving nutrients, the known essential vitamins and many mineral elements and apart from its chemical composition it derived value from other properties such as easy digestibility. Many investigations have been made which justify the belief that the general health of the community, and especially of children, would be improved, and the incidence of disease, including rickets, diminished, if the present consumption of liquid milk, averaging about 0.4 pint per head per day, could be increased to about a pint. Milk has few disadvantages as an article of diet. For infants, after breast‐feeding has ceased, it should form the bulk of the diet, with any necessary supplements to furnish iron and vitamins C and D. After infancy milk is not a complete food but a very important item in diet, particularly for children, who should be given one to two pints a day, and for expectant and nursing mothers, for whom about two pints a day are desirable. Other adults, who need milk especially for the sake of its calcium and animal protein, should have at least half a pint a day. Milk is unfortunately liable to contamination by disease‐producing bacteria and its heating by suitable methods such as pasteurisation has important advantages in making it safe for human consumption from this point of view. Moreover, when milk is treated by heat, little significant change is known to occur in its nutritive properties, and such deficiencies as may be caused can readily be made good. It is therefore reasonable to assume that raw milk incorporated in other cooked articles of diet, such as bread and puddings, retains most of its nutritional properties. The report also calls attention to the degrees of nutritive value possessed by various milk products, especially separated milk. The memorandum is entitled “The Nutritive Value of Milk” and can be obtained (price 3d.) direct from H.M. Stationery Office or through any bookseller.