This study explores learning climates within a financial services organisation. Through the use of survey and case study strategies and analysis of secondary data available within…
Abstract
This study explores learning climates within a financial services organisation. Through the use of survey and case study strategies and analysis of secondary data available within the organisation, it assesses the current state of individual, team and organisational learning in the organisation and the managers’ roles in promoting a learning climate. The conclusions drawn from this research lead to recommendations for a series of actions, which, if adopted, would help to establish the need for a learning climate and a wider and deeper understanding of the nature of learning in the organisation. Initial practical steps are outlined to put into place activities that would add value to the organisation, enhance its learning capabilities and develop its learning climate. Research implications are also discussed.
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Congratulations cards, gifts, and announcements in newspapers are some features of the social rituals surrounding the birth of a child, normally a happy occasion. A subtle mixture…
Abstract
Congratulations cards, gifts, and announcements in newspapers are some features of the social rituals surrounding the birth of a child, normally a happy occasion. A subtle mixture of public and private activity intermingle in reactions to this unique yet universal event. In this article I intend to explore the rituals and processes involved in hearing and spreading the news of a birth, with particular reference to grandparents. Such a discussion of the announceable features of becoming a grandparent can form the beginning of an assessment of the meaning and significance of grnadparenthood, something which has received little attention in sociological work. In providing an account of the essential features of ‘telling the news’, I hope to generate an understanding both of the procedures used to ‘make sense’ of grandparenthood, and of the structural assumptions and processes underlying the way in which events are announced.
Stephen Fineman and Yiannis Gabriel
The social ritual of apology is highly nuanced in Western cultures. At its profoundest, it represents felt and displayed feelings of remorse for injuring another party and…
Abstract
The social ritual of apology is highly nuanced in Western cultures. At its profoundest, it represents felt and displayed feelings of remorse for injuring another party and transgressing a central moral code. The felt regret is accompanied by a strong impulse to right the wrongs caused. The absence of such apology is taken as denial or devaluation of the moral worth of the harmed party, hence the restorative significance of a sincere apology. The restoration, however, is likely to be more symbolic than literal for a deep hurt, as the injury itself cannot be reversed. What is restored by the apology is the dignity of the victim; recognition that they should not have been treated in the way they have been. The moral and relational value of such apologies is nicely captured by Kathleen Gill:The apology is not a thing; it is an act that displays a certain set of beliefs, attitudes, etc. experienced by the offender. More importantly, an apology is not a mechanism for offsetting losses. The apology does not compensate for loss; it is instead a way to acknowledge the value of what was lost. ( Gill, 2000, p. 16 )It follows that this kind of apology implicates emotions beyond feelings of remorse and regret. It involves the expression of feelings of empathy and shame, the former placing the perpetrator in the victim's shoes, the latter signaling ownership and responsibility for having crossed a moral line — and wishing to do something about it. Yet what is felt has also to be performed, and convincingly so if the apology is to provide what Goffman terms a “remedial exchange” (Goffman, 1971). Acts of apologizing are in part cultural and in part institutionalized. In the traditional Catholic Church, for example, the apology ritual contains a confession of sins, plus an act of prayer or restoration to the wronged party. It once also involved penances, such as fasts, sexual continence, pilgrimages, or floggings.
This study compares filmic and televisual representations of fictional black presidents to white Americans’ reactions to the advent of the United States’s first African American…
Abstract
Purpose
This study compares filmic and televisual representations of fictional black presidents to white Americans’ reactions to the advent of the United States’s first African American president. My main goal is to determine if there is convergence between these mediated representations and whites’ real-world representations of Barack Obama. I then weigh the evidence for media pundits’ speculations that Obama owes his election to positive portrayals of these fictional heads of state.
Methodology/approach
The film and television analyses examine each black president’s social network, personality, character traits, preparation for office, and leadership ability. I then compare the ideological messages conveyed through these portrayals to the messages implicated in white Americans’ discursive and pictorial representations of Barack Obama.
Findings
Both filmic and televisual narratives and public discourses and images construct and portray black presidents with stereotypical character traits and abilities. These representations are overwhelmingly negative and provide no support for the argument that there is a cause–effect relationship between filmic and televisual black presidents and Obama’s election victory.
Research implications
Neither reel nor real-life black presidents can elude the representational quagmire that distorts African Americans’ abilities and diversity. Discourses, iconography, narratives, and other representations that define black presidents through negative tropes imply that blacks are incapable of effective leadership. These hegemonic representations seek to delegitimize black presidents and symbolically return them to subordinate statuses.
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Wolfgang Bauer, Jürgen Dorn and Ivan Pryakhin
The level of trust in a service provider is an important decision factor when buying industrial services. Especially, the outcome uncertainties of services, its individuality, and…
Abstract
The level of trust in a service provider is an important decision factor when buying industrial services. Especially, the outcome uncertainties of services, its individuality, and asymmetric information between buyer and seller are some reasons that the evaluation of trust is a key component in service trading. Consequently, searching of potential new suppliers involves examining providers’ trustworthiness. This paper focuses on the study of online trust signals used by buyers, to assess provider’s trustworthiness in the context of industrial services. The main research objective is to propose the basis for a digital tool, which helps buyers to assess provider’s trustworthiness by providing a “standardized trustworthiness signal description” and “trust functionalities.” A particular approach is used, wherein different methods are mixed such as a case study, expert interviews, and a quantitative method following the guideline of the design science paradigm. The aim is to propose a useful tool for trustworthiness assessment to enhance e-markets for industrial services.
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Barrie O. Pettman and Richard Dobbins
This issue is a selected bibliography covering the subject of leadership.
Abstract
This issue is a selected bibliography covering the subject of leadership.
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Ayodeji Emmanuel Oke, John Aliu, Patience Tunji-Olayeni and Timilehin Abayomi
This paper aims to identify and evaluate the challenges affecting the adoption of gamification practices in developing countries through the lens of the Nigerian construction…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to identify and evaluate the challenges affecting the adoption of gamification practices in developing countries through the lens of the Nigerian construction industry.
Design/methodology/approach
A scoping literature review was conducted through which challenges to the adoption of gamification practices were identified, which helped in the formulation of a questionnaire survey. Data was obtained from construction professionals including architects, builders, engineers and quantity surveyors. Retrieved data were analyzed using several statistical tools such as percentages, frequencies, mean item scores (MIS) and exploratory factor analyses.
Findings
Based on the MIS ranking results, the top five significant challenges to the adoption of gamification were lack of capacity and expertise, lack of budgeting for innovation, lack of technical infrastructure, hesitation to adopt and limited internet connectivity. Through factor analysis, the challenges identified were categorized into five principal clusters, namely, organizational challenges, technical-related challenges, human-related challenges, data security challenges and economic challenges.
Practical implications
The identification and evaluation of the key challenges hindering the adoption of gamification practices would help construction organizations and stakeholders to understand the need to embrace and implement the concept into their activities, operations and processes to improve the engagement and motivation levels of employees.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first of its kind in the study area to identify and evaluate the challenges affecting the adoption of gamification practices using a structured quantitative approach.
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Isobel Cunningham, Sharon Loane and Pat Ibbotson
This study aims to investigate the internationalisation strategies of small games development firms from Poland and Hungary.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the internationalisation strategies of small games development firms from Poland and Hungary.
Design/methodology/approach
This enquiry adopts a qualitative approach, whereby firms were identified from online searches, and secondary information was sought on each firm prior to in‐depth interview, in order to highlight the issues relating to internationalisation/growth.
Findings
The paper provides evidence that small games development firms undertake rapid internationalisation, despite resource constraints. Firms were founded by teams of entrepreneurs who unlike many other international entrepreneurs, did not have a priori experience, sometimes moving from being hobbyists into commercial operations. These often exist in a pre‐natal phase some years before formal incorporation, an important phase when many of the resources required are sourced. The findings show only partial support for RBV, as these firms were acquiring and controlling resources from their environment on a freelance and low commitment basis. The authors speculate that these firms display dynamic capabilities of the highest order in order to do so.
Research/limitations/implications
This enquiry adds to understanding of the (international) growth strategies of small games development firms, and gives insight into how they access dynamic capabilities. However, the number of firms investigated is small and from two Eastern European countries, therefore further larger scale research should be undertaken.
Originality/value
Based on this exploration new insights are developed with regard to an under researched sector, and how such firms undertake rapid internationational growth, despite being particularly resource constrained. In particular, the entrpreneurs in these firms have little experience and creatively acquire and control resources in order to grow rapidly. The authors speculate that they display advanced dynamic capabilities.