Margaret McCabe and Margaret Nowak
The purpose of this paper is to examine the views of directors of public‐listed Australian companies regarding the role of the independent director and the significance of that…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the views of directors of public‐listed Australian companies regarding the role of the independent director and the significance of that role in relationship to the composition of the board of company directors.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative study using a grounded research approach was used and 30 directors of Australian public‐listed companies were interviewed.
Findings
The analysis indicates that participating directors were convinced that a majority of non‐executive directors (NEDs) provided a safeguard for a balance of power in the board/management relationship. The difference between NEDs, who are also independent directors, and NEDs who are not independent, was highlighted as an important distinction. The capacity for board members to think independently was seen to be enhanced, but not necessarily ensured, with majority membership of NEDs. However, a majority of independent minds expressing multiple points of view was perceived to reduce the board room hazard of “group think.”
Research limitations/implications
The study was conducted within the context of the preferred model for board composition in Australian public‐listed companies which requires a majority of NEDs.
Originality/value
Conflicting evidence surrounding the claim that a majority of independent members in the board structure contributes to “best pratice governance” makes the paper relevant to governance issues being debated in the global arena.
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Alma Whiteley, Margaret McCabe and Lawson Savery
This paper examines how the findings of a wider research effort, designed to examine the effect of change processes on the waterfront in Fremantle, Western Australia, gave rise to…
Abstract
This paper examines how the findings of a wider research effort, designed to examine the effect of change processes on the waterfront in Fremantle, Western Australia, gave rise to another research project. This second research project is described in full as an action research. The paper presents the objectives, content method and outcomes as well as the processes followed throughout the project. The Enterprise Communication Committee was not created for the action research program yet it was able to define both trust and communication. A home produced mechanism for developing trust and communication was constructed together with a commitment to carry on action learning within the organization. This is the waterfront ‐ with no history of development and no exposure to theory, the group members identified a need, produced a set of working definitions a methodology and an enthusiastic commitment to action.
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This paper aims to enhance understanding of organizational change by countering managerial and critical assumptions that it is possible to break with the past.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to enhance understanding of organizational change by countering managerial and critical assumptions that it is possible to break with the past.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative, case study approach involving interviews with 50 staff, ten supervisors, eight deputy supervisors, four assistant managers, two departmental managers plus the IT, training and personnel managers. The paper focuses on the experiences of supervisors and deputy supervisors.
Findings
That culture cannot be so readily forgotten or reinvented as management gurus assume or critics fear. Memories are stubborn and culture is constituted through them in ways that lead to continuity and change.
Research limitations/implications
Limitations leading to future research include that the study explores only one organization. Second, consultants are not used. Third, the reengineering only focus on a part of the organization. Fourth, the findings can be contrasted with an organization that is considered leading edge.
Originality/value
The qualitative findings provide a complex understanding of change especially in terms of how memory can serve to both facilitate and hinder change initiatives and how attempts to introduce more “informal” cultures simultaneously reproduce “formality”.
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Louisa Yee-Sum Lee, Kitty Yuk-Ching Lam and Margaret Y.C. Lam
The purpose of this paper is to advocate the emerging trend of wellness tourism in an urban setting. Cities, with dense population and hectic pace of living, pose some challenges…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to advocate the emerging trend of wellness tourism in an urban setting. Cities, with dense population and hectic pace of living, pose some challenges on mental health to dwellers. Meanwhile, the populated characteristic of cities opens up opportunities for economic activity, in particular wellness tourism. To comply with the “travel to feel ‘well” trend, product offerings and demand of wellness tourism in urban tourism destinations are yet to be enumerated. The trend paper offers research insights for future investigation.
Design/methodology/approach
The ideas presented in the trend paper are inspired by the personal observation of the author from both scholarly and grey literature.
Findings
The research directions are delineated in the supply and demand facets. In the demand side, the motivations and behaviors of wellness tourist exerted rooms for examination. Their experiences on wellness tourism could possibly extend to the long-term influence on the cognitive, affective and behavioral changes of individuals. From the supply perspective, the current demarcation of wellness tourism is yet to be explored. Intangible supply associated with wellness tourism, namely, event and dining experiences have been ignored in scholarly studies. A fresh review of the topic from socio-cultural perspective is also viable.
Originality/value
The rise of urbanization and visitor arrivals to cities is expected in foreseeable future. To the best of the author’s knowledge, research insights on wellness tourism in the urban context are still at infancy. The insights on the trend paper are consolidated from a wide range of scholarly and grey literature in a holistic manner.
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Margaret-Anne Lawlor, Áine Dunne and Jennifer Rowley
While substantial scholarly attention has been given to children’s understanding of advertising in the context of traditional advertising channels, there is a gap in the…
Abstract
Purpose
While substantial scholarly attention has been given to children’s understanding of advertising in the context of traditional advertising channels, there is a gap in the literature with regard to children’s commercial awareness in the context of online social networking sites. This paper aims to seek to explore the nature and extent of advertising literacy among young consumers in the context of their use of social networking sites, namely, Facebook and Bebo.
Design/methodology/approach
A three-stage study was conducted with 12 to 14-year-old girls, using focus group discussions, participant observation and in-depth interviews.
Findings
The study illustrates that the increasingly blurred line between online advertising and other forms of online brand-related content is militating against the development of advertising and marketing literacy in young consumers. A key issue which is discussed is the extent to which the traditional conceptualisation of advertising literacy is “fit for purpose” in an online context.
Originality/value
The authors propose an alternative to the advertising literacy concept, namely, the Online Brand Communications literacy framework. This framework recognises the convergence of traditional online advertising and other forms of online brand content and also acknowledges that the messaging around a brand may originate from the brand owner in a variety of overt and covert forms. Equally, online consumers may also act as brand promoters when they engage in brand-related word-of-mouth.
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This chapter engages cosmopolitan and feminist paradigms of knowledge production through their shared ethics of social justice, equality, and diversity, promoting integration into…
Abstract
This chapter engages cosmopolitan and feminist paradigms of knowledge production through their shared ethics of social justice, equality, and diversity, promoting integration into an emerging postdisciplinary focus on embodied cosmopolitanism(s) as a promising way forward in tourism studies. Cosmopolitan paradigms theorize the dialectics of cultural diversity and universal rights, while feminist cosmopolitanism focuses on gender and sexuality equality and difference within this intersection. An embodied approach combines work on “the body” and “situated embodiment” with the cosmopolitan to embrace all human differences and acknowledge that the researchers’ own embodied cosmopolitanism affects research questions, ethics, and praxis toward transformation in research communities and the academy.
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Donnalyn Pompper, Tugce Ertem Eray, Eric Kwame Adae, Elinam Amevor, Layire Diop and Samantha Nadel
We enjoin stakeholder theory, radical-cultural feminist theory, and critical race theory with critical intersectionality to critique findings which suggest that there still are…
Abstract
We enjoin stakeholder theory, radical-cultural feminist theory, and critical race theory with critical intersectionality to critique findings which suggest that there still are significantly more men than women on nearly every Fortune 500 board of directors, with only six corporations featuring (50-50%) gender equity in 2017. Also, only 4.1% board members are women of color and 9% are men of color. Sixty-five people of color on corporate boards serve on more than one board. This means there are even fewer people of color filling top corporate leadership positions than meets the eye. The proposed alternative course of action is for boards of directors to follow the example of the small handful of peer Fortune 500 corporations that have achieved greater levels of board diversity, equity, and inclusion.
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The purpose of this paper is to make intelligible the rationalities and mechanisms through which markets have been proffered as alternatives or complements to traditional…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to make intelligible the rationalities and mechanisms through which markets have been proffered as alternatives or complements to traditional welfare‐based provision and the effect of this development on the subjectivity of workers.
Design/methodology/approach
The research involved collection of archival data, personal encounters and in‐depth interviews with managers, staff and elected representatives at a local authority in New Zealand. Michel Foucault's concept of governmentality is mobilised to interpret these data.
Findings
The paper finds that the mandatory changes required by legislation are associated with efforts to constitute local authority workers as business‐like subjects through disciplinary mechanisms and technologies of the self. While markets have permeated this local authority, with some managers and staff claiming to work in a business‐like manner and transact with each other as customers, these discourses have not vanquished the traditional concern of working for one organisation to serve the community.
Research limitations/implications
While the results of this study are not generalisable to other contexts, they show how the introduction of New Public Management in a specific context is associated with a contest between the traditional discourses of community and public service, and the more recent ones of enterprise and customer. The paper illuminates the pathologies associated with these new technologies and how their implementation is often divergent from the rationalities in the name of which they are promoted.
Practical implications
The paper will contribute to ongoing debate on how best to deliver public goods and services and especially, the limits and potential of markets.
Originality/value
The paper's mobilisation of Foucault's governmentality framework in the study of a local authority case study in a contemporary setting is relatively unusual.
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Megan Gilligan, J. Jill Suitor and Karl Pillemer
For nearly a century, research on economic hardship has demonstrated its negative effects on family relations. However, with few exceptions, this work has focused on the…
Abstract
For nearly a century, research on economic hardship has demonstrated its negative effects on family relations. However, with few exceptions, this work has focused on the consequences for marital quality and parenting behaviors in early stages of the life course. In contrast, in the present study, we examine how financial distress among adult children in midlife affects their relationships with their mothers in their 70s and early 80s. Specifically, we used quantitative and qualitative data collected from 387 mothers in 2001–2002 and 2008–2010 regarding their adult children’s recent financial problems and their levels of tension and closeness felt toward each child. Multilevel analyses revealed that both children’s financial problems within the past year and earlier problems that had been resolved predicted mothers’ reports of tension in their relationships with their adult children. Contrary to expectations, neither measure of children’s financial problems predicted mothers’ reports of closeness to their children. Examination of the qualitative data suggested that mothers attributed their children’s financial failures to personal failures of the adult children. In addition, the qualitative data revealed clear gender differences. Mothers disproportionately attributed their sons’ financial problems to lack of career success, whereas mothers were much more likely to express disappointment in daughters with financial problems because of marital dissolutions.
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Sanford E. DeVoe and Sheena S. Iyengar
Purpose – We outline a novel perspective on the role the allocation medium plays in how groups allocate resources fairly. Building upon recent research that demonstrates the…
Abstract
Purpose – We outline a novel perspective on the role the allocation medium plays in how groups allocate resources fairly. Building upon recent research that demonstrates the unique norms invoked by the resource of money, we propose that what individuals’ judge to be a fair allocation principle among group members systematically varies as a function of whether the resource being distributed is money versus other resources that are allocated within organizations. In light of the existing research, we argue that an egalitarian allocation principle will be understood to be less fair when the norms of the market are invoked by the distribution of a resource that is a medium of exchange (e.g., money) rather than an in-kind good (e.g. food). We conclude by discussing the implications of identifying the unique properties of money for a wide set of literatures.
Approach – In this theoretical paper we review prior research examining contextual variables influencing allocation preferences and attempt to identify the different characteristics of money as a resource that might influence conceptions of fairness.
Value – This chapter offers a theoretical review of the relevant literature and will be of interest to scholars of social justice.