A study of the price discounts granted by Morton Salt Company and other producers of table salt in the U.S. on their sales of table salt to grocery wholesalers and retailers. The…
Abstract
A study of the price discounts granted by Morton Salt Company and other producers of table salt in the U.S. on their sales of table salt to grocery wholesalers and retailers. The discounts were found to be illegal under the Robinson-Patman Act by the Federal Trade Commission and the Supreme Court. The Commission and the Court believed that the discounts were unjustified price concessions granted to “large” buyers, consistent with the concerns of the Robinson-Patman Act. However, the evidence indicates that the most common discount – the “carload discount” – was received by virtually all buyers, regardless of the buyer’s size; the other discounts – “annual volume” discounts – though received primarily by “large” buyers, were likely cost based. The history of the discounts and likely reasons why they were granted are explored in detail.
Several paradoxes have been presented in the literature as inherent in supervision of doctoral students. The purpose of this paper is to explore these paradoxes and offer the…
Abstract
Purpose
Several paradoxes have been presented in the literature as inherent in supervision of doctoral students. The purpose of this paper is to explore these paradoxes and offer the concept of praxis as a way of effectively engaging with complex and paradoxical dimensions of supervision, rather than denying or avoiding them.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on sometimes provocative offerings of others, and the seminal work of Grant, views are presented that problematise supervision, challenging its representation as something to be transparently understood, planned and managed. Sophisticated theories of supervision have been offered in literature to hold its inherent paradoxes while opening up its practice for inquiry. It is suggested that supervision is usefully understood as the development of praxis: challenging supervisor and student to understand their practice journey as one of interwoven, often tacit, dimensions of knowing, doing, being and becoming (that are personally and therefore distinctively resolved.
Findings
Generative metaphors drawn from other complex domains of human experience suggest useful ways of engaging with the intensity, individuality and murkiness of supervision. Such metaphors draw attention to the identities and authorities that are in play and offer markers that can be identified even through the fog.
Originality/value
Voice work is explored as a metaphor for supervision, suggesting reflective practices that ask supervisor and candidate to pay deep attention to the sounds of their voices as well as to the nuances of the dialogue they create together.
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Robert Chapman Wood, Daniel S. Levine, Gerald A. Cory and Daniel R. Wilson
This chapter introduces evolutionary neuroscience and its organizational applications, especially its usefulness for motivation analysis in macrolevel disciplines such as…
Abstract
This chapter introduces evolutionary neuroscience and its organizational applications, especially its usefulness for motivation analysis in macrolevel disciplines such as strategic management. Macrolevel organizational disciplines have mostly lacked a theory of motivation beyond self-interest assumptions, which fail to explain many important macrolevel organizational phenomena. Evolutionary neuroscience provides an empirically grounded, parsimonious perspective on the human brain and brain evolution which helps clarify the profound complexities of motivation. Evolutionary neuroscience’s theory of the physiological causes of self- and other-interested motivation can support better macrolevel motivation analysis and unify disparate, potentially conflicting motivation theories. Examples are offered of how neuroscience-based motivation theory can support more comprehensive strategic management analysis of competences and competitive advantage.
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This chapter is about the modern (Western) educational regime, educational industry paradigm and schooling process, while focussing on statutorily imposed and legally enforced…
Abstract
This chapter is about the modern (Western) educational regime, educational industry paradigm and schooling process, while focussing on statutorily imposed and legally enforced schooling as the main aspect of the hidden curriculum within a globalizing world.
It is about children's productive labour through schooling, whereby children's labour power is consumed, produced and reproduced on behalf of social formations under the capitalist mode of production (CMP).
The claim that a well-educated population is essential for development so that all societies share an interest in having children participate in schooling as much as possible is the central element of the Western education industry paradigm, the global appeal of which is reflected in how compulsory schooling has been embraced almost everywhere in conjunction with being heavily promoted within the ‘international community’ and widely endorsed by researchers, scholars and similar observers.
Contrary to Bowles and Gintis's correspondence principle, the structure of schooling is not an identical to the structure of the workplace in that it entails compulsion, whereby schooling is as efficient and effective as possible in meeting the needs of the CMP.
The CMP benefits from the state having shifted confinement as a mechanism to force people to work onto schooling; or, from compulsory social enclosure, whereby schools increasingly resemble military and prison systems.
Compulsory social enclosure helps to ensure that children's productive capacity – or labour power – is enhanced to the benefit of the CMP, this being the major factor in accounting for its appeal and advance on the world stage, globally.
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This paper aims to provide a living tribute to the leading autoethnographer, Alec Grant.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to provide a living tribute to the leading autoethnographer, Alec Grant.
Design/methodology/approach
Alec provided Jerome with a list of names of people he might approach to write a tribute on his behalf.
Findings
The accounts describe the influence that Alec has had both as an educator and as a trusted colleague for the people approached.
Research limitations/implications
While this is a living tribute, it is about one man and could, therefore, be described as a case study. Some people wonder what can be learned from a single case study. Read on and find out.
Practical implications
Alec has carved out a path for himself. In many senses, he chose “The Road Less Travelled”. He has never shied away from challenging “The System” and defending the rights of the marginalized and socially excluded. It is not a road for the faint-hearted.
Social implications
For systems to change, radical thinkers need to show the way. “Change keeps us safe” (Stuart Bell).
Originality/value
Alec was a well-known and highly respected cognitive behavioural academic practitioner and the author of key textbooks in the field. He then decided to reinvent himself as an autoethnographer. This has brought him into contact with a much more diverse group of people. It has also brought him home to himself.
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This research seeks to respond to Simon's challenge to apply “an economic calculus to knowledge”. The paper aims to develop a typology of knowledge that may be fruitful in…
Abstract
Purpose
This research seeks to respond to Simon's challenge to apply “an economic calculus to knowledge”. The paper aims to develop a typology of knowledge that may be fruitful in facilitating research in a knowledge‐based view of production.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper reviews the enduring literature on the knowledge‐based view of the firm (KBV) and gleans three classifications of organisational knowledge as distinct factors of production: tacit, codified, and encapsulated knowledge.
Findings
Differences between the tacit, codified, and encapsulated shapes of knowledge carry strategic implications for the firm along six important dimensions. Distinguishing between its three classifications sets the stage for measurement of knowledge as a factor of production.
Research limitations/implications
Distinctions between the three shapes of knowledge may be less defined in practice than in theory. The classification in which a repository of knowledge falls is dependent on the tacit knowledge being applied by the user. Software may be encapsulated to a user, but codified to its creator.
Practical implications
Recognition of the differences between the three shapes of organisational knowledge may help managers to: determine the most economic combination of knowledge to use in production; transfer knowledge more effectively within and across organisational boundaries; determine the most economic location of firm boundaries; and ensure value is appropriated for the firm.
Originality/value
The paper suggests that distinguishing and accentuating encapsulated knowledge as a distinct classification of knowledge can help advance the development of a strategic knowledge‐based theory of production.
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The purpose of this exploratory study is to examine the relevance and impact of knowledge in the context of Uruguay’s present and future socioeconomic development through the lens…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this exploratory study is to examine the relevance and impact of knowledge in the context of Uruguay’s present and future socioeconomic development through the lens of the knowledge-based theory of the firm (KBTF).
Design/methodology/approach
The perspectives of 47 key informants, predominantly representatives of public and private Uruguayan institutions, including chambers of commerce and producer associations, were gathered through unstructured, face-to-face interviews.
Findings
Aligned with the KBTF, the significance of tacit knowledge, complemented with explicit knowledge, was revealed, particularly in the more traditional industries. Indeed, industry-based (tacit) knowledge evolving for generations has been strengthened by innovative practices, enhancing the appeal and image of key commodities and the nation’s exports. Additional elements highlighted in the KBTF, such as problem-solving, knowledge integration and application and knowledge specialisation, were identified.
Originality/value
Essentially, the study highlights the different associations between the KBTF, the various forms of acquiring knowledge (tacit, explicit), innovation and resulting impacts on food quality and increased product recognition for a developing economy. Moreover, the findings, which illustrate that crucial improvements can be achieved through knowledge-based approaches, could also be considered in the context of other emerging economies that are aiming to attain further socioeconomic development through maximising the benefits of knowledge. In addition, the study addresses a theme that has been sporadically presented in the academic literature, especially when studying developing economies and their industries.
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Jacqueline Manuel and Don Carter
This paper provides a critical interpretative analysis of the first secondary English syllabus for schools in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, contained within the Courses for…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper provides a critical interpretative analysis of the first secondary English syllabus for schools in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, contained within the Courses for Study for High Schools (New South Wales Department of Public Instruction, 1911). The purpose of the paper is to examine the “continuities that link English curriculum discourses and practices with previous discourses and practices” in the rhetorical curriculum. The analysis identifies those aspects of the 1911 English syllabus that have since become normative and challenges the appropriateness of certain enduring orthodoxies in a twenty-first century context.
Design/methodology/approach
Focussing on a landmark historical curriculum document from 1911, this paper draws on methods of historical comparative and documentary analysis. It sits within the tradition of historical curriculum research that critiques curriculum documents as a primary source for understanding continuities of discourses and practices. A social constructionist approach informs the analysis.
Findings
The conceptualisation of subject English evident in the structure, content and emphases of the 1911 English syllabus encodes a range of “discourses and practices” that have in some form endured or been “reconstituted and remade” (Cormack, 2008, p. 275) over the course of a century. The analysis draws attention to those aspects of the subject that have remained unproblematised and taken-for-granted, and the implications of this for universal student participation and attainment.
Originality/value
This paper reorients critical attention to a significant historical curriculum document that has not, to date, been explored against the backdrop twenty-first century senior secondary English curriculum. In doing so, it presents extended insights into a range of now normative structures, beliefs, ideas, assumptions and practices and questions the potential impact of these on student learning, access and achievement in senior secondary English in NSW in the twenty-first century.
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To illustrate methodologically and conceptually how understanding of entrepreneurial management can be enhanced through a discourse perspective which focuses on discourse as both…
Abstract
Purpose
To illustrate methodologically and conceptually how understanding of entrepreneurial management can be enhanced through a discourse perspective which focuses on discourse as both noun and verb, encompassing discursive resources and discursive practices.
Design/methodology/approach
An ethnographic study of SME managers and their companies, which deployed a discourse perspective to managing, organising and learning. Through two case study companies the paper explores how managers' formal management learning influenced their organisation practice.
Findings
Demonstrates how significant communicative acts are to understanding a company. Illustrates how apparent organisation dysfunction might be analysed and sense made of it.
Research limitations/implications
By differentiating between discursive practice and discursive resource it shows that entrepreneurship research can be enriched through ethnographic study of both the content of communication between organisation members and their communicative practices.
Practical implications
Illustrates a method of gaining insight into dysfunctional organisational processes. Provides new ways of understanding and researching the interconnections between learning, knowledge and management in small enterprises.
Originality/value
In the small firm sector there are still few empirical discursive analyses of organization and managing. Discursive organization studies have also tended to be undervalued as “an obsession with talk” and “an intellectual luxury”. This article addresses both these gaps, both offering evidence of the practical utility of the methodological approach for advancing organisation understanding and providing a rare empirical discursive study of managing in SMEs.