Andrew Paul Clarke, Clare Cornes and Natalie Ferry
A case study was undertaken to evaluate the use of self-reflection in enterprise education in a UK university, where the taught content was tailored to ensure relevance to the…
Abstract
Purpose
A case study was undertaken to evaluate the use of self-reflection in enterprise education in a UK university, where the taught content was tailored to ensure relevance to the students who were from a variety of subject disciplines.
Design/methodology/approach
Enterprise taught content was established in masters level 7 programmes across a range of subject disciplines. Taught content was designed using problem based learning, and evaluated using self-reflective methodologies. The paper reflects on the current position of enterprise education and asks the research question of whether the use of self-reflective teaching methodologies are valid for enterprise education.
Findings
Results suggest that the students appreciated the introduction of enterprise into their course and in the main did not view it as disjointed or irrelevant to their wider aims. More so, the students commented favourably towards the integration of enterprise into their primary discipline, and noted an enhanced learning experience because of this integration.
Research limitations/implications
For the University: A novel approach to enterprise teaching has been developed at a UK university, focusing on teaching non-business students how to be more valuable to a business within their degree subject context. This has empowered the students with an enhanced understanding of commercial issues and increased employability (Rae 2007; Huq and Gilbert 2017). This has also led to enhanced relationships with industry and given students a wider understanding of their degree area.
Practical implications
For the educator: The use of self-reflective teaching methodologies (Hayward 2000) are noted to be vital in order to deliver enterprise education in a way that is relevant to the student cohort body. By reflecting on one’s teaching style and delivery method, the authors were able to engage non-business students in enterprise education, and receive a high level of student satisfaction. It is noted that self-reflection was a valuable process for delivery to each degree discipline. By employing problem based learning and self-reflective teaching methodologies, an increased synergy between the business taught elements and the science subjects was created.
Originality/value
This approach is shown to empower the students with an enhanced understanding of commercial issues and an increased employability. This has led to enhanced relationships between academia and industry, and given students a wider understanding of their degree area; the enhanced relationships with industry offer students a wider commercial understanding of their degree area. A gap in the current knowledge base in enterprise education has been identified: enterprise education with the aim of educating the student to be more valuable to a business as opposed to starting a business. The use of self-reflective methodologies has offered a novel approach to enterprise teaching in a UK university.
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M. Natalie Lam and Kevin Y.K. Ng
The traffic flow pattern of the material distribution activitywithin the Canadian Forces was evaluated. The aim was to validate thecurrent operation of the material traffic…
Abstract
The traffic flow pattern of the material distribution activity within the Canadian Forces was evaluated. The aim was to validate the current operation of the material traffic system. Sample transportation data were collected, and the traffic flow pattern and utilisations of the Canadian Forces′ scheduled tractor‐trailer units were statistically inferred. Because historical material traffic data were lacking, the material traffic flow pattern for this one‐time snapshot of the transportation system did not provide a basis from which any trend on the Canadian Forces′ vehicle utilisation could be established.
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The purpose of this paper is to explore subjective life histories and leadership journeys of senior leaders, drawing upon elements of an authentic leadership framework (life…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore subjective life histories and leadership journeys of senior leaders, drawing upon elements of an authentic leadership framework (life trigger events, values and emotions). The paper surfaces partial life histories and the often unheard of individual experiences of becoming a leader, offering stories to others as a media for learning and extending authentic leadership theory.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws upon a qualitative empirical study engaging 22 UK senior leaders in semi‐structured interviews, involving a life‐history approach to generate subjective narratives of how individuals establish and sustain leadership.
Findings
The empirical data highlights that elements of authentic leadership theory resonate in practice. Senior leaders' life histories and in particular negative trigger events are significant to their approach as leaders. The values of honesty and integrity were important to the leaders, with some able to sustain their values uncompromisingly. The leaders openly expressed emotion and vulnerability when re‐telling their stories, but whether they do so as leaders in relationships with others, requires further research. Authentic leadership theory may be over simplified in terms of emotion and vulnerability in practice.
Practical implications
Elements of authentic leadership offer alternative understandings of experiences of leaders. The life history approach enables important insights into leaders' subjective realities and should be integral to leadership development approaches.
Originality/value
The paper offers empirical data from UK senior leaders, highlighting the unheard of strutting and fretting of leadership and contributing empirical research to authentic leadership theory.
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Natalie Elms, Gavin Nicholson and Amedeo Pugliese
Director selection is an important yet under-researched topic. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to extant literature by gaining a greater understanding into how and why…
Abstract
Purpose
Director selection is an important yet under-researched topic. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to extant literature by gaining a greater understanding into how and why new board members are recruited.
Design/methodology/approach
This exploratory study uses in-depth interviews with Australian non-executive directors to identify what selection criteria are deemed most important when selecting new director candidates and how selection practices vary between organisations.
Findings
The findings indicate that appointments to the board are based on two key attributes: first, the candidates’ ability to contribute complementary skills and second, the candidates’ ability to work well with the existing board. Despite commonality in these broad criteria, board selection approaches vary considerably between organisations. As a result, some boards do not adequately assess both criteria when appointing a new director hence increasing the chance of a mis-fit between the position and the appointed director.
Research limitations/implications
The study highlights the importance of both individual technical capabilities and social compatibility in director selections. The authors introduce a new perspective through which future research may consider director selection: fit.
Originality/value
The in-depth analysis of the director selection process highlights some less obvious and more nuanced issues surrounding directors’ appointment to the board. Recurrent patterns indicate the need for both technical and social considerations. Hence the study is a first step in synthesising the current literature and illustrates the need for a multi-theoretical approach in future director selection research.
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Ben Kerrane and Margaret K. Hogg
The purpose of this paper is to examine children's consumption experiences within families in order to investigate the role that different family environments play in the consumer…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine children's consumption experiences within families in order to investigate the role that different family environments play in the consumer socialisation of children.
Design/methodology/approach
Key consumer socialisation literature is reviewed and family communication patterns and parental socialisation style studies are introduced. Such studies argue for the homogenous and shared nature of the family environment for children. A three‐stage qualitative study of six families is reported, incorporating existential phenomenological interviews. The voices of children and their parents are captured, and the transcribed interview texts are analyzed on two levels (within and across family cases) using a hermeneutical process.
Findings
The findings of the study point towards the differential treatment of children within the family environment by both parents and siblings. It is proposed that children inhabit a unique position, or micro‐environment, within their family setting. Consumer micro‐environments are introduced; these have important implications in terms of children's consumption behaviour and, more importantly, their consumer socialisation process within the family setting.
Research limitations/implications
Consumer micro‐environments have potentially important implications in any re‐evaluation of the literature on consumer socialisation, and it is suggested that children may not have equal access to socialisation advice and support offered by family members. A limited number of families and family types are recruited in this exploratory study, and scope exists to explore family micro‐environments across a greater variety of family forms.
Originality/value
A series of micro‐environments, which have implications for the consumer socialisation of children, will be developed on a theoretical level. Existing consumer research views the family environment in homogenous terms, with suggestions that children are socialised by their parents in a similar manner (inhabiting a shared family environment). These findings problematise such a view and also offer insights into the role played by siblings in the consumer socialisation process.
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Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Tenn. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are…
Abstract
Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Tenn. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are available through normal trade sources. Mrs. Cheney, being a member of the editorial board of Pierian Press, will not review Pierian Press reference books in this column. Descriptions of Pierian Press reference books will be included elsewhere in this publication.
On April 2, 1987, IBM unveiled a series of long‐awaited new hardware and software products. The new computer line, dubbed the Personal Systems 30, 50, 60, and 80, seems destined…
Abstract
On April 2, 1987, IBM unveiled a series of long‐awaited new hardware and software products. The new computer line, dubbed the Personal Systems 30, 50, 60, and 80, seems destined to replace the XT and AT models that are the mainstay of the firm's current personal computer offerings. The numerous changes in hardware and software, while representing improvements on previous IBM technology, will require users purchasing additional computers to make difficult choices as to which of the two IBM architectures to adopt.
The purpose of this paper is to present contrasting approaches to the descriptive case study of tourism to the buried city of Plymouth, Montserrat, an example of the marketing and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present contrasting approaches to the descriptive case study of tourism to the buried city of Plymouth, Montserrat, an example of the marketing and burying – the supply and demand – of apocalyptic dark tourism on the island.
Design/methodology/approach
A case study mixed-methods methodology is adopted, and findings are derived from tour guiding fieldwork, guide and tourist interviews, and an analysis of travel writing and tourism marketing campaigns.
Findings
Dark tourism is viewed as a contentious and problematic concept: it attracts and repels tourism to the former capital Plymouth, Montserrat. After 20 years of the volcano crisis, the islanders, government and Tourist Board are commemorating resilience living with the volcano and regeneration in a disaster scenario. Marketing and consumption approaches to dark tourism elucidate different facets to the case study of “the buried city” of Plymouth, Montserrat, and the Montserrat Springs Hotel overlooking Plymouth. The disjunct between these two types of approach to dark tourism, as well as the different criteria attached to working definitions of dark tourism – and the range of interests in apocalyptic dark tourism into the city and its surrounds – show some of the problems and limitations with theoretical and scalar discussions on dark tourism.
Research limitations/implications
The paper’s implications are that both supply and demand approaches to dark tourism are needed to fully understand a dark tourism destination and to reconcile the disjunct between these two approaches and the perspectives of tourist industry and tourism users.
Originality/value
This is a descriptive dark tourism case study of a former capital city examined from both supply and demand perspectives. It introduces the apocalyptic to dark tourism destination analysis.