Phillip Karcher and Roland Jochem
The purpose of this paper is to identify main success factors for the effective implementation, operation and certification of an energy management system (EnMS) in accordance…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify main success factors for the effective implementation, operation and certification of an energy management system (EnMS) in accordance with ISO 50001, which represents the fastest growing standard for management systems in the world (International Organization for Standardization, 2013).
Design/methodology/approach
Due to rising energy costs, increasing global competitive pressure and the demand for environmentally friendly products companies all over the world consider the implementation of an EnMS to meet future challenges. For that reason a survey (Jochem et al., 2013) among already certified German companies has been conducted focussing on organizational, teambuilding and technical aspects.
Findings
Results indicate that EnMSs are most commonly built on already existing management structures and therefore staff organization is crucial for the success of the project. Still, monetary aspects such as energy related cost savings seem to be the decisive criterion for the operation of an EnMS. Regarding teambuilding aspects specific technical expertise is required which leads to cross-functional teams focussing on the field of production. In addition key technical and administrative measures for an effective EnMS were identified.
Originality/value
The study provides best practice knowledge and gives interested companies the advantage to benefit from both the positive experiences of the participants as well as to prevent potential contra productive activities during the implementation, certification and operation of an EnMS.
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Teacher education for social justice aims to enable teachers to work toward equity and justice in society and humanizing the educational experience of their students…
Abstract
Teacher education for social justice aims to enable teachers to work toward equity and justice in society and humanizing the educational experience of their students. Conceptualizing teaching as a political and ethical endeavor, social justice teacher education must engage seriously with the local and lived experiences of both teacher educators and student teachers. How then does teacher education for social justice move across communities and identities, and through cultural, social, geographic and temporal spaces? This chapter presents an autobiographical narrative inquiry into social justice teacher education across sociocultural and sociopolitical contexts, across time, and within different educational communities. Bakhtin's dialogic theory (1981) helps to trace the narrative threads wherein “each word tastes of the context and contexts in which it has lived its socially charged life” (p. 293). The study examines my ideological becoming (Bakhtin, 1981) as a critical teacher educator in the context of a youth mentoring service-learning course for undergraduate teacher candidates. I examine the complexities and tensions in exploring experiences and co-constructing understandings of oppression, privilege and social justice with my student teachers on the youth mentoring course in dialogic struggles with my experiences of justice and education in the USA and Hong Kong as an English-speaking Chinese American. Providing an in-depth examination of the convergence of identity, social relations, place, and time in my knowledge formation, I critically reflect upon the notion of social justice to suggest that social justice teacher education is multi-voiced and lived both locally and globally.
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Maria Daskalaki and Marianna Fotaki
Radical feminist theory and practice has actively questioned power relationships between men, women and people of color as a cornerstone of capitalist development since the 1970s…
Abstract
Radical feminist theory and practice has actively questioned power relationships between men, women and people of color as a cornerstone of capitalist development since the 1970s while demonstrating the differential impact of such inequality generating structures and relationships on lives and bodies. Their argument about the process of social reproduction and, especially, the reproduction of labor-power both achieved through the dispossession of the female and (colonial) body and the expropriation of their work (Federici, 2004) is acutely relevant to the analysis of the consequences of the unfolding Global Financial Crisis. Yet, the crisis can be a motivating force for changing the established power relations. Using three different case studies of female initiatives aiming to counteract the imposition of neoliberal attack on their livelihoods in crisis-stricken Greece, the chapter examines how the existing experience of feminist thinking and activism from within and outside of academia, can contribute to the cultivation of affective embodied relations, and building upon the idea of “feminist solidarity” (Mohanty, 2003), in addressing the challenges of the crisis and post-crisis policies.
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Theresa Hammond, Kenneth Danko and Mark Landis
Although accounting professors around the globe have addressed various social aspects of accounting, very rarely does that research address the concerns of students. This is…
Abstract
Although accounting professors around the globe have addressed various social aspects of accounting, very rarely does that research address the concerns of students. This is despite the fact that students are the focus of the educational mission of most universities. In an effort to address this gap, this chapter extends the field of social accounting to an issue critical to students: the cost of accounting textbooks in the United States. Textbook cost is drawing increasing attention from public interest groups and government regulators as costs are growing at a more rapid rate than many other costs, and constitute a significant portion of the total cost of obtaining a higher education degree. For accounting students, these costs are exacerbated by the fact that accounting textbooks are among the most expensive of any major, and they are being revised with increasing frequency – which eliminates students’ ability to buy less expensive used books – often with little or no discernible benefit to students. We argue that in some subfields of accounting – especially managerial/cost and introductory courses – topics are relatively stable, and that frequent textbook revisions are unnecessarily costly for our students, many of whom, along with their families, are making significant financial sacrifices to earn their degrees. In this study, we provide background on the textbook pricing issue, include data from a survey of accounting faculty demonstrating that they consider the revisions too frequent, document the increasing frequency of accounting textbook revisions over recent decades, analyze content in a leading accounting textbook, and discuss options for reducing the cost of accounting textbooks, including following student activists’ lead in advocating for open-source, free textbooks.
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This study contributes to the limited literature dealing with ethical perceptions of earnings management in developing capital markets by investigating the perceptions of…
Abstract
This study contributes to the limited literature dealing with ethical perceptions of earnings management in developing capital markets by investigating the perceptions of managers, accountants, and investment analysts in Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Thailand, to ethical issues concerning the management of earnings. The results are compared to similar studies undertaken in the US and UK. The results show that East Asian managers, accountants, and analysts tended to be less willing to condemn situations as clearly unethical and use a narrower range of ethical responses than their US/U K counterparts. However, there was a remarkable overall consistency of perceptions between East Asian and US/UK managers, accountants, and analysts in relation to many issues.
These details and drawings of patents granted in the United States are taken, by permission of the Department of Commerce, from the ‘Official Gazette of the United States Patent…
Abstract
These details and drawings of patents granted in the United States are taken, by permission of the Department of Commerce, from the ‘Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office’. Printed copies of the full specifications can be obtained, price 25 cents each, from the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D.C., U.S.A. They are usually available for inspection at the British Patent Office, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, London, W.C.2.
The combination in a gas turbine engine including a turbine‐driven compressor, a combustion section having an inlet communicating with said compressor, and means for starting said…
Abstract
The combination in a gas turbine engine including a turbine‐driven compressor, a combustion section having an inlet communicating with said compressor, and means for starting said engine, of; means for supplying a combustible charge to said combustion section, means for igniting said combustible charge, and valve means for closing the inlet to said combustion section upon the ignition of said combustible charge comprising a control valve having radial array of pivotal overlapping shutter flaps positioned in the inlet of the said combustion section.
Gary M. Fleischman, Sean Valentine and Don W. Finn
Ethical issues and moral reasoning are important in the tax policy context because shared moral values create good societies (Paul et al., 2006). This study of the equitable…
Abstract
Ethical issues and moral reasoning are important in the tax policy context because shared moral values create good societies (Paul et al., 2006). This study of the equitable relief subset of the innocent spouse rules is a good example of Congressional and IRS policy that has been substantially reformed twice (and continues to be reassessed) to create tax law that effectively treats innocent spouses equitably (Fleischman & Shen, 1999). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the degree to which subjects' moral reasoning, using the first two steps of Rest's (1986) ethical reasoning model, is related to perceived moral intensity (Jones, 1991) in several tax-based equitable relief situations. Integrative social contracts theory provides the study's theoretical lens.
Subjects evaluated a mailed-questionnaire containing two separate equitable relief scenarios about a spouse who was unaware of her husband's tax evasion – one scenario included verbal abuse and the other scenario contained no such abuse. The survey also contained a variety of ethics and attitudinal measures used to measure the study's focal variables. The results support the a priori hypotheses that moral intensity is positively related to recognition of an ethical issue, judgment that the ethical scenario is unethical, and judgment to grant equitable relief. In addition, the scenario containing emotional abuse was associated with increased levels of moral intensity as compared to the scenario that did not contain abuse. The paper concludes with a discussion of both professional and public policy implications.
Ioulia Poulaki, Nikolaos Iason Koufodontis and Sofia Papadimitriou
The aim of this paper is a first attempt to map and describe airline information systems (IS) market, in the context of the latest trends affecting air services distribution…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is a first attempt to map and describe airline information systems (IS) market, in the context of the latest trends affecting air services distribution, revenue management (RM) and passengers in the airline industry.
Design/methodology/approach
RM evolution has greatly affected airline revenues and load factors in a global environment characterized by fierce competition. The distribution of air services has shifted gradually from a model dependent on travel agents and other intermediaries toward a new trend of do-it-yourself (DIY) bookings through the Internet. The resulting new and significantly more complex environment mandates the connection between revenue management systems (RMS) and reservation systems (RS) through third parties (aggregators) that have emerged and are ready to perform this task. In this context, a market review has been carried out, following the approach of a structured literature review to illustrate this ecosystem.
Findings
Data collected from the vendors depict the market size and capabilities, highlighting that the market for IS in the airline industry is based on a relational triangle of dependence and competition that includes RS, RMS and aggregators.
Originality/value
Mapping both technological and functional backgrounds and the operation of current distribution systems and their linking with RMS and methods is deemed a necessity for identifying and describing the mechanisms that are defining the B2B relationship and the subsequent need to improve the ways current distribution schemes combined with RM applications are addressing changing market needs, reflecting the new behavioral models of the customers.