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This paper explains how the capital proposals of large experienced clients of the UK construction industry are influenced by paradigms and perspectives. It shows how those involved in the decision‐to‐build process react to stimuli caused by a need to demonstrate objective decision‐making. The paper is taken from a 5‐year PhD study undertaken by the first author, which investigated the origins of the decision to build undertaken by leading clients. The clients sampled had a total annual construction budget of between £700 million and £1000 million in the year that data were collected. The product of the research was an explanation of what happens in the pre‐project stage, why it happens, and why it will change in the future. The significance of its conclusions is that any system designed to model or improve decision‐making in the pre‐project stage must be capable of adaptation and modification as influences and considerations shift. Moreover, the need to justify decisions as ‘objective’ empowers paradigms and perspectives that act as conditioning influences on the people making or shaping proposals. The paper concludes by showing that an understanding of the role played by paradigms and perspectives could allow management to ‘rethink construction’ and meet the challenges put forward by Sir John Egan (The Egan Report: Rethinking Construction, DETR, 1998).

The decision to build initiates the development process. After taking account of all the factors it represents a decision to embark on a built solution to satisfy the organisation’s strategic objectives. It is a decision that senior managers and members of the design team should be aware of, reflect on and consider why the decision to build was made in the first place. By understanding the history of the strategic decision the design team may be better able to respond to client requirements and opportunities by providing the most appropriate building. In practice, most participants in the design process are often divorced from the decision within the client organisation and may lack the necessary background information that informed, guided or forced the choice of a building solution. There is a dearth of well‐documented material and literature on this key decision in the development process. The literature is sparse and that which does exist often ignores or only includes as a secondary issue the decision to build. The attitude is often one where the decision is generally accepted as a given, not to be revisited or amended by later players. Presents some key findings from the research into the project inception and the decision to build process, with particular emphasis on the environmental factors that influence the process and the product.

Adapting to external and internal transformations is a difficult task that managers and scholars must face while attempting to keep their organisations alive and well-established. This chapter explores the various decision-making tools that can assist practitioners and scholars to improve their understanding of the external scenario to determine the contemporary appropriateness of these approaches for analysing the environment and their implications for various types of organisations. The chapter investigates the barriers and drivers of these methods and proposes existing alternative paradigms created by academics and practitioners to analyse and comprehend the context. It demonstrates how these decision-making tools can be implemented by providing examples and case studies.

The globalisation of markets, emerging concepts of sustainable development, and circular economy have defined the boundaries within which organisations must compete and address the needs of key stakeholders. As circumstances change, boundaries are often replaced by the relationships between companies and the communities they serve. Consequently, strategy has become a central aspect of sustainable leadership and the foundation for implementing strategic management in a dynamic system of relationships. Every company is born and grows within social and economic ecosystems. Drawing on the metaphor of biology, ecosystems are described as dynamic interconnections among various elements that influence and foster entrepreneurship. Interconnections between players (such as marketplaces, organisations, governments, and universities) create a flow of expertise, abilities, knowledge, experience, and tangible resources. Economic and social ecosystems involve various actors and components that continuously coexist and interact, leading to the creation of numerous mutual relationships. Consequently, it is crucial for managers to gain a comprehensive understanding of the internal and external environments. Various decision-making tools and strategies can be used to achieve this goal. These tools were developed to assist managers, researchers, and consultants in making informed decisions under complex scenarios. This chapter presents several decision-making strategies and tools, including the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) matrix, General Electric (GE) matrix, Balanced Scorecard (BSC), PEST, PESTEL analysis, and SWOT analysis.

Spirituality in the workplace is a concept that has been emphasized a lot in recent years. However, the relationship of this concept with gender and discrimination has not been adequately addressed. Individual and organizational positive outcomes of spirituality in the workplace cannot be obtained when discrimination is in question. This is because the concepts of spirituality and discrimination in the workplace are completely opposite to each other. In order to prevent discrimination based on gender, sexual orientation, race, age, religion, disability and to establish spirituality in the workplace, organizations should follow awareness and training programs to eliminate prejudices of their management and employees, give importance to differences, develop an understanding of democracy and justice within the organization and development egalitarian and anti-discrimination policies and application. In this direction, while the differences are managed correctly, spirituality will be established in the workplace.

The spread of conspiracy theories and associated vaccine rejection within the wellness industry and spiritual communities during the COVID-19 pandemic attracted significant media and scholarly attention. Informed by the ‘(Con)spirituality, Science and COVID-19 in Australia’ project (2020–2021) (Halafoff, Marriott, et al., 2022; Halafoff, Weng, et al., 2022; Roginski & Rocha, 2022), funded by the Templeton Religion Trust and awarded via the International Research Network for the Study of Science and Belief in Society (INSBS), this chapter reports on findings pertaining to holistic spirituality, purity doctrines and wellness, arising from a parallel pilot study on ‘Spirituality and Wellness (SWell) in Australia’ (2021). Both studies have revealed a ‘spiritual complexity’ in Australia and internationally, and the authors report on this here, focussed particularly on spirituality’s quest for pristine bodies, and on spiritual ‘moral communities’ (Ganga Kieffer, 2023) exceptionalism and relationality.

This study looks at the visibility of logos during the televised broadcast of the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Turin, and television viewers' perceptions, recall and recognition of those logos. The results indicate that the number of brands and logos perceived was far greater than actually existed, bringing into question the effectiveness of the Olympics' 'clean venue' policy.

After the fall of Burma on 10 March 1942 the British government extensively implemented scorched-earth policies in Bengal like denial of rice and boats. The British government had inadequate defense equipment to resist Japanese attack in Bengal. After the Japanese invasion supply of Burmese rice suddenly stopped. Faridpur district used to import rice from Burma. The Burmese conquest created an immediate and serious crisis for several rice imported districts and coastal districts of Bengal. Hence, none of the districts of East Bengal could escape its brutal clutches and severity recorded in Chittagong, Dhaka, Faridpur, Tripura, Noakhali, Bakargonj and so on.

Among the affected districts of Bengal, Faridpur has been chosen as study area due to severity of famine. This study addresses the famine scenario of Faridpur. Data has been collected from primary and secondary sources. Content Analysis Research method is used to test reliability and validity of the data. Historical Analysis Research method has been followed in this study.

Finding of the study shows that the government relief issues, ignorance of warnings, political nepotism and denial policy of British government intensified the famine of Faridpur district. The wartime tactics adopted by the colonial government aggravated the famine situation. This article has shed light on the government war time policy, activity and some impacts of British decline in Burma that fueled the famine in Faridpur district.

This study is my original research work and has not been published else where.