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Article
Publication date: 1 April 1997

Michael Lazo and James Kirk

The need to improve performance and productivity causes conflict when a blind typist comes under scrutiny. Although not intentionally singled out, she felt threatened. This is a…

508

Abstract

The need to improve performance and productivity causes conflict when a blind typist comes under scrutiny. Although not intentionally singled out, she felt threatened. This is a sensitive issue that needs to be handled with tact and professionalism. Because of the personalities involved, there is no easy solution to this case, a characteristic that makes “performance shock” a valuable learning tool.

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Journal of Workplace Learning, vol. 9 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1366-5626

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Article
Publication date: 19 November 2018

Bernardo Batiz-Lazo

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the contributions of the so-called “Historic Turn” in Organization Studies through the attempt by Cummings et al. (2016) to offer a new…

1184

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the contributions of the so-called “Historic Turn” in Organization Studies through the attempt by Cummings et al. (2016) to offer a new and alternative approach to teaching and researching the history of management ideas. A New History of Management is intended to be a provocation rather than a practical plan, and by their own admission, Cummings et al. (2016) prefer controversy to detailed analysis.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper offers a comment and reinterpretation of a single contribution to highlight deficiencies which are symptomatic of the post-modernist research agenda around the “Historic Turn” in Organization Studies. The argument develops through a critical reading of Cummings et al. (2016) to determine whether theirs is a thoughtful and serious piece of work.

Findings

Cummings et al. (2016) invite us to revise and re-evaluate the genesis of management ideas available across textbooks. This by questioning some of the beliefs regarding the origins of management thought within textbooks aimed at both general management and the history of management thought. The premise of Cummings and colleagues is a timely and welcomed suggestion. So is their attempt to broaden the debate to alternative epistemological positions. They can potentially help to improve the emergence of conceptual and theoretical understandings of the history of managers’, business and management thought. Although far from being exhaustive, the paper points to the large number of inconsistencies and poor historiography in Cummings et al. (2016). This is in line with other contributions to the so-called “Historic Turn” in Organization Studies. The central argument presented by this paper is the myopic and technically poor approach of the “Historic Turn”. It is the case that Cummings et al. (2016) fail in their attempt to offer an alternative to established textbooks or explain the development of different approaches to construct systematic studies that, over time, consider the evolution of management, managers and those who have conceptualized their performance.

Research limitations/implications

This paper does not present new (archival) historical evidence.

Originality/value

The central contribution/ambition of this paper is to incentivize an advance of the current understanding of the origins and evolution of systematic thinking on management, managers and business organizations. The ambition of this paper is in line with Cummings et al. (2016) aim to incentivize research into how textbooks address the origins of management and management thought. Textbooks in both general management and the history of management thought, and the story told in them are important tools that speak directly to the ability of historical research to help advance the different disciplines that form general studies in business and management.

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Journal of Management History, vol. 25 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1751-1348

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Article
Publication date: 18 April 2008

Michael D. Clements, Ricardo M. Lazo and Sandra K. Martin

Understanding the multitude of linkages that exist between customer requirements, the characteristics of fresh produce, the functions performed by supply chains, and how these…

2237

Abstract

Purpose

Understanding the multitude of linkages that exist between customer requirements, the characteristics of fresh produce, the functions performed by supply chains, and how these impact on relationships in chains is important if the trend towards relationship marketing in the fresh produce industry are to be better understood. The purpose of this paper is to present the results of an empirical study of New Zealand fresh produce supply chains that investigates such multiple linkages.

Design/methodology/approach

A theoretical framework was developed for the study, where relationships were characterised as relationship connectors between parties. This framework was operationalised using two case studies of fresh produce supply chains in the South Island of New Zealand.

Findings

Relationships in the chains were characterised by very strong information exchange, relatively strong cooperative norms, strong operational linkages and specific buyer‐seller adaptations. Relationships connected in these ways facilitated the supply chain functions of procurement, quality, logistics and information. This ensured that the challenges facing these supply chain functions, the market requirements of fresh produce and product characteristics, could be managed.

Research limitations/implications

Because of the method used, it is not possible to empirically generalise from the findings. The key theoretical generalisation that emerges is that relationships in fresh produce supply chains are connected in ways that will enable the challenges facing the management of the different supply chain functions to be met.

Originality/value of paper

This finding uses the theory of relationship connectors to contribute to the expanding knowledge base of academics and practitioners on relationship marketing in the food industry.

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British Food Journal, vol. 110 no. 4/5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

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Article
Publication date: 21 September 2012

Bernardo Bátiz‐Lazo and Thomas Krichel

Applications of information technology have been directly responsible for the increase in productivity of business, government and academic activities. Business and management…

335

Abstract

Purpose

Applications of information technology have been directly responsible for the increase in productivity of business, government and academic activities. Business and management historians have yet to contribute to better understanding such processes. This paper aims to address this shortcoming through the internal and organisational history of a system for speedy, online distribution of recent additions to the broad literatures on economics and related areas called NEP: New Economic Papers.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a first person account (partly autobiographical) which also includes interviews and the use of archived e‐mail correspondence.

Findings

The advent of the internet promised a revolutionary change by democratising the social institutions related to the creation and dissemination of academic knowledge. Instead, this story tells how participants slowly but steadily tended to replicate established institutions.

Social implications

This paper provides a story of the NEP project and shows how one person's drive could generate a broader community of volunteers (constituted by a large number of academics and practitioners who provide critical support for its functioning). The paper provides details of the social and technological challenges for the construction of the technological platform as well as the evolution of its governance.

Originality/value

There is no historiography in business and management history on how to deal with changes in archived material resulting from the application of information and telecommunication technologies. Given the rate of change for events in the third industrial revolution, this paper shows it is possible and indeed relevant to document events in the recent past.

Details

Journal of Management History, vol. 18 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1751-1348

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Publication date: 4 July 2019

Jerry A. Jacobs and Rachel Karen

In this chapter, the authors offer a critical appraisal of predictions of a jobless future due do rapid technological change, as well as provide evidence on whether the rate of…

Abstract

In this chapter, the authors offer a critical appraisal of predictions of a jobless future due do rapid technological change, as well as provide evidence on whether the rate of occupational change has been increasing. The authors critique the “task replacement” methodology that underlies the most powerful and specific predictions about the impact of technology on employment in particular occupations. There are a number of reasons why assuming a correspondence between task replacement and employment declines is not warranted. The authors also raise questions about how rapidly the development, acceptance, and diffiusion of labor-displacing technologies is likely to occur. In the empirical portion of the chapter, the authors compare the current rate of employment disruption with those observed in earlier periods. This analysis is based on an analysis of occupation data in the US covering the period 1870–2015. Using an index of dissimilarity as the metric, the authors find that the rate of occupational change from 1870 to 2015 does not provide evidence of a sharp uptick in the rate of occupational shifts in the information age. Instead, the rate of occupation shifts has been declining slowly throughout the second half of the twentieth century. Thus, the issues and results discussed here suggest that imminent massive employment displacement is not a foregone conclusion.

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Work and Labor in the Digital Age
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78973-585-7

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Book part
Publication date: 17 January 2023

Sylvia Gottschalk

Cryptoassets have recently attracted the attention of national and international financial regulators. Since the mid-2010s blockchains have increasingly been adapted to automate…

Abstract

Cryptoassets have recently attracted the attention of national and international financial regulators. Since the mid-2010s blockchains have increasingly been adapted to automate and replace many aspects of financial intermediation, and by 2015 Ethereum had created the smart contract language that underpins the digitization of real assets as asset-backed tokens (ABTs). Those were initially issued by FinTech companies, but more recently banks active on international capital and financial markets, and even central banks, for example, the Bank of Thailand, have developed their own digital platforms and blockchains. A wide variety of real and financial assets underpins ABTs, viz., real-estate, art, corporate and sovereign bonds, and equity. Consequently, owing to the significant market capitalization of cryptocurrencies, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) published two consultative papers delineating its approach on cryptoasset regulation. In this study, the authors analyze the mechanics of ABTs and their potential risks, relying on case studies of recent issuance of tokens in equity, real-estate, and debt markets, to highlight their main characteristics. The authors also investigate the consequences of the increasingly oligopolistic structure of blockchain mining pools and Bitcoin exchanges for the integrity and security of unregulated distributed ledgers. Finally, the authors analyze the BCBS’ regulatory proposals, and discuss the reaction of international financial institutions and cryptocurrency interest groups. The main findings are, firstly, that most ABTs are akin to asset-backed securities. Secondly, nearly all ABTs are “off-chain/on-chain,” that is, the underlying is a traditional asset that exists off-chain and is subsequently digitized. The main exception is the World Bank’s bond-i that is genuinely native to the blockchain created by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, and has no existence outside it. Thirdly, all ABTs are issued on permissioned blockchains, where anti-money laundering/anti-terrorist funding and know-your-customer regulations are enforced. From a prudential regulatory perspective, ABTs do not appear to pose serious systemic risks to international financial markets. This may account for the often negative reactions of banks, banking associations, and cryptocurrency interest groups to the BCBS’ 2021 proposals for risk-weighted capital provisions for cryptoassets, which are viewed as excessive. Finally, we found that issuance of ABTS and other smart contracts on permissionless blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum could potentially generate financial instability. A precedent involving Ethereum and The DAO in 2016 shows that (i) there is a significant accountability gap in permissionless blockchains, and (ii) the core developers of blockchains and smart contract technology, and Bitcoin mining pools, exercise an unexpectedly high- and completely unregulated-amount of power in what is supposedly a decentralized network.

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Details

British Food Journal, vol. 110 no. 4/5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

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Book part
Publication date: 27 November 2023

Leonidas Efthymiou, Yianna Orphanidou and Achilleas Karayiannis

What is the impact of workers' tattoos and piercings on hospitality work? While body-art is prohibited in some hotels, it is encouraged in others. Also, an even more ambiguous…

Abstract

What is the impact of workers' tattoos and piercings on hospitality work? While body-art is prohibited in some hotels, it is encouraged in others. Also, an even more ambiguous situation arises when body-art is neither accepted nor prohibited, depending on labour market conditions and managers' individualistic preferences. In this chapter, we explore how this ambiguity imposes challenges on employment and career planning. We first seek to understand how managers' perceptions and decisions concerning worker body-art change in different hotel categories. To do so, we draw on interviews with 25 General and Human Resource Managers in 18 upper market hotels, three lifestyle boutique-hotels and four luxury hotels. Then, we offer pragmatic suggestions on career planning.

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The Emerald Handbook of Appearance in the Workplace
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80071-174-7

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Article
Publication date: 15 August 2024

Chetanraj D.B. and Senthil Kumar J.P.

This study aims to determine the best way to apply material flow cost accounting (MFCA) in an SME environment with the goal of visualizing negative product cost during the…

102

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to determine the best way to apply material flow cost accounting (MFCA) in an SME environment with the goal of visualizing negative product cost during the manufacturing process and pinpointing places where improvements can be made.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses a case study approach to demonstrate the usefulness of the MFCA tool in an SME in India that produces aluminum energy products used in the electrical power sector through gravity die casting.

Findings

According to the results, the company’s gravity die casting has a negative product cost margin of 27.38% as a result of MFCA analysis. It is also determined that the negative material cost is Rs. 22,919, the negative system cost is Rs. 462 and the negative energy cost is Rs. 1,069 for processing 300 kg of raw material. The typical monthly raw material processing for this company is 45,000 kg.

Originality/value

This research shows that MFCA’s implementation will improve the company’s environmental consciousness and bottom line. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to implement MFCA in aluminum gravity die casting of electrical parts manufacturing.

Details

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, vol. 39 no. 12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0885-8624

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Book part
Publication date: 8 May 2018

Minsun Ji

This chapter examines the labor-empowerment potential of emerging taxi driver cooperative-union partnerships. Cooperative-union partnerships can adopt differing stances toward the…

Abstract

This chapter examines the labor-empowerment potential of emerging taxi driver cooperative-union partnerships. Cooperative-union partnerships can adopt differing stances toward the virtue of waging broad-based, class-conscious conflict against economic elites to win economic change, as opposed to the virtue of small-scale and practical steps to improve the immediate conditions of individual “job-conscious” workers. This case study utilizes a “class consciousness” versus “job consciousness” framework to examine a recent immigrant taxi driver union-cooperative partnership.

Case study of taxi driver organizing in Denver (CO), utilizing narrative inquiry, and survey and interviews with 69 drivers.

The US tradition of accommodational job consciousness continues to influence union and cooperative leaders. Among Denver’s taxi cooperatives, an emphasis on accommodational job consciousness, bereft of class perspectives, has undermined a narrative promoting worker solidarity or encouraging workers to engage in social justice campaigns for immigrant workers. The consequence has been to weaken the transformational potential of taxi driver activism.

Findings based on a single case study need to be confirmed through additional research.

Cooperative-union partnerships that adopt a class-conscious political approach, including leadership development opportunities, a “labor empowerment curriculum, and partnerships with broader social movements, are a promising alternative to narrowly tailored “job conscious” organizing strategies.

Immigrants are increasingly forming worker cooperatives, and the recent Denver taxi driver union-cooperative is one of the largest taxi cooperatives in the country. Current research on the labor empowerment consequences of these emerging immigrant cooperatives is sparse.

Details

Employee Ownership and Employee Involvement at Work: Case Studies
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78714-520-7

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