Jill Poulston and Rene Bennett
This exploratory study aims to determine whether a relationship is likely to exist between good feng shui and success.
Abstract
Purpose
This exploratory study aims to determine whether a relationship is likely to exist between good feng shui and success.
Design/methodology/approach
The feng shui of eight hotel foyers and entrances were evaluated against 20 criteria, and managers asked to comment on the success of their hotels. Results were examined for possible relationships between feng shui and their descriptions of success.
Findings
Similarities between the reported success of hotel and feng shui evaluations were found in six out of the eight hotels in the study.
Research limitations/implications
Responses on success were subjective and based on five criteria, which were insufficient to determine the existence of a firm relationship between actual success and feng shui. However, this was an exploratory study, and the relationships were sufficiently strong to warrant further research.
Practical implications
Findings suggest that feng shui offers useful design principles, and hotels with good feng shui are described as being more successful than those with poor feng shui. Good feng shui appears to have a positive effect on feelings of success.
Originality/value
This is the first study that attempts to test the relationship between good feng shui and success.
François J. Dessart and René van Bavel
This commentary argues that social marketing and the application of behavioural sciences to policy constitute two converging paths towards better policies. It highlights points of…
Abstract
Purpose
This commentary argues that social marketing and the application of behavioural sciences to policy constitute two converging paths towards better policies. It highlights points of convergence and divergence between both disciplines and the potential benefits of further embedding social marketing principles and methods within the recent trend of applying behavioural sciences to policy.
Design/methodology/approach
The commentary relies on a review of the behavioural sciences and social marketing literatures and on an analysis of institutional reports reviewing cases of behaviourally informed policies.
Findings
Behavioural sciences are increasingly informing policies to promote societal well-being. Social marketing has seldom been explicitly considered as being part of this phenomenon, although it is de facto. Both disciplines share similar end-goals, inform similar policy applications and are rooted in behavioural analysis. They diverge in their theoretical frameworks, their relative emphasis on behaviour change and the span of interventions they generate. Several benefits of embedding social marketing principles and methods within the current way of applying behavioural sciences to policy are identified.
Practical implications
Scholars applying behavioural sciences to policy are encouraged, when appropriate, to use the insights and methods from social marketing. Social marketing can engage in a dialogue with behavioural sciences to explore how to pilot the convergence of both approaches in practice.
Originality/value
The novelty of this contribution lies in providing the first comparison of the application of behavioural sciences to policy with social marketing, and in using the policy-making cycle framework to map the contributions and complementarities of both disciplines.
Details
Keywords
Sanjeev Shrivastava and Shrivastava R.L.
The purpose of this paper is to survey the technical performance of the cement industry including those related to procedures; groundwork of raw materials, fuels and semi-finished…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to survey the technical performance of the cement industry including those related to procedures; groundwork of raw materials, fuels and semi-finished products for processing; accessibility of machinery, plant and equipment for various operations; arrangement and process control management.
Design/methodology/approach
A broad range of survey and research was reviewed, and all revealed the methods to recognize the key influences for development of green technology. The study explores the present scenario of green manufacturing (GM) strategies of Indian cement companies and provides the industrial ecology, ways of reducing energy consumption, environmental impact data collection, design and control of manufacturing systems and integration of product and manufacturing system. It also reveals the problems in decision-making systems owing to the impact of the green product design. Here, in this paper, all information is obtained by the medium of internet, journals, articles, and magazines.
Findings
This paper describes a problem of global warming, gas, water and other wastages emissions at the time of cement manufacturing and put forward a path that enables decision makers to assess the perception of GM in their organization and in prioritizing GM efforts.
Originality/value
This perspective survey is to provide an integrative outlook of performance methods for GM practices in the Indian cement industries. It gives important information, which expectantly will help in cement industry to adopt GM practices. This paper fills the gap in the literature on identification, establishment, and validation of performance measures of GM for Indian cement industries.
Details
Keywords
The act of becoming ‘heavily tattooed’, with its historical association with deviant subcultures, continues to carry a social stigma and evoke negative sanctions. This is…
Abstract
The act of becoming ‘heavily tattooed’, with its historical association with deviant subcultures, continues to carry a social stigma and evoke negative sanctions. This is especially so for women, who must also contend with gender norms within the highly masculinised tattoo subculture. For women, the experience of becoming heavily tattooed comes to represent an embodied resistance to normative ideals of beauty, against which the participants construct their own alternative gender and beauty philosophies. Besides gender norms, the tattoo world has specific ethos which divides the serious subcultural member from those more casually connected to it. The physical parameter of the subculture finds people gathering in tattoo studios and at tattoo conventions, as well as consuming tattoo-oriented media, such as magazines and television shows. This study draws on in-depth interviews with 36 participants across the United States who consider themselves serious tattoo collectors. From their stories, we learn about the importance of participating in this leisure activity and how becoming heavily tattooed impacts their sense of self, gender and identity.
Frits Schreuder, René Schalk and Sasa Batistič
This present study aims to examine how experiences of high-performance work systems (HPWS) in work teams affect employee’s work attitudes and performance. At the team level, the…
Abstract
Purpose
This present study aims to examine how experiences of high-performance work systems (HPWS) in work teams affect employee’s work attitudes and performance. At the team level, the study explored the role of supervisory support in the relationship experienced HPWS -team performance. In explaining employee attitudes and behaviours at the individual level, such as organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB), the study adopted a psychological contract approach.
Design/methodology/approach
The moderating role of supervisory support was investigated at the team level while exploring mediation effects of psychological contract beliefs in work teams in cross-level relationships with individual attitudes and behaviours.
Findings
Results indicate partial mediation of fulfilment of psychological contracts in work teams in the experienced HPWS-OCB relationship. At the team level, supervisory support perceptions moderate the effects of shared experiences of HPWS on product and service innovation in work teams.
Originality/value
The focus on the employee perspective of HPWS, the factor-analytic approach of measuring HPWS experiences and the role of team psychological contracts in employee attitudes and behaviours represent the main contributions of this study to HR research.
Details
Keywords
Katharine Dow and Victoria Boydell
This edited collection proposes an interdisciplinary and integrated approach to the study of reproductive technologies (RTs), which reflects the fact that many people use…
Abstract
This edited collection proposes an interdisciplinary and integrated approach to the study of reproductive technologies (RTs), which reflects the fact that many people use different technologies throughout their lifecourse and resists the disciplinary siloing of research on these technologies. The ever-expanding availability of RTs, the continued roll-out of ‘family planning’ and maternity services across low- and middle-income settings and the rapid development of the fertility industry mean that it is more likely than ever that individuals, especially women and trans* people, will engage with more than one RT at some point in their life. These multiple engagements with RTs will affect users' expectations and uptake, as well as the technologies' availability, commercial success, ethical status and social meanings. We offer this book as part of a wider movement in the study of reproduction and RTs, which takes inspiration from the reproductive justice framework to address forms of exclusion, discrimination and stratification that are perpetuated in the development and application of RTs and the ways in which they are studied and theorised. Here, we introduce the project and outline the structure of the book.
Details
Keywords
THE Newcastle school, like most others, was established after the second world war to provide full‐time education in librarianship as an alternative to the part‐time system which…
Abstract
THE Newcastle school, like most others, was established after the second world war to provide full‐time education in librarianship as an alternative to the part‐time system which until 1946 was the only one available to the majority of librarians. At first most of the students were returning servicemen whose library careers had been interrupted by the war and they were followed by students direct from libraries, universities and schools. From a handful of students and one full‐time member of staff in the first year the school has grown steadily until there were 53 students and five staff during the session 1962–3 which was the last course held for the Registration Examination.