Megan Paull, Maryam Omari, Judith MacCallum, Susan Young, Gabrielle Walker, Kirsten Holmes, Debbie Haski-Leventhal and Rowena Scott
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the importance of expectation formation and matching for university student volunteers and their hosts.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the importance of expectation formation and matching for university student volunteers and their hosts.
Design/methodology/approach
This research involved a multi-stage data collection process including interviews with student volunteers, and university and host representatives from six Australian universities. The project team undertook an iterative process of coding and interpretation to identify themes and develop understanding of the phenomenon.
Findings
University student volunteering has the potential to fail to meet the expectations of at least one of the parties to the relationship when the expectations of the parties are not clearly articulated. Universities operating volunteer programmes have an important role in facilitating expectation formation and matching, minimising the chances of mismatched expectations.
Research limitations/implications
The study confirms the operation of a psychological contract for university student volunteers and organisations who host them which is consistent with other research in volunteering demonstrating the importance of matching expectations.
Practical implications
The paper identifies the importance of expectation formation and matching for hosts and students, and highlights the role of universities in facilitating matchmaking.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the growing body of research on the role of the psychological contract in volunteering, in particular in university student volunteering and host organisations.
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George Cairns and Joanne Roberts
The purpose of this paper is to present a selection of responses to the report Fashion Victims, published by War on Want in December 2006. It offers a range of viewpoints…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a selection of responses to the report Fashion Victims, published by War on Want in December 2006. It offers a range of viewpoints presented by members of the Editorial Advisory Board of CPOIB. These are presented in chronological order of submission. There is some cross‐reference by contributors to the work of others, but no attempt is made to present a unified argument.
Design/methodology/approach
Presents the full contributions of involved participants, without mediation or editorial change.
Findings
A number of different perspectives are presented on the central issue that is summarised by the opening heading in War on Want's report – “How cheap is too cheap?” It is seen that the answer to this question is very much dependent upon the standpoint of the respondent.
Originality/value
In presenting this form of commentary, members of the CPOIB Editorial Board seek to stimulate debate about an issue of concern to contemporary society, without resort to the time delay and mediating processes of peer‐review normally attached to academic writing. It is hoped that this discussion will provoke further contributions and a widening of the debate.
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Timo Dietrich, Erin Hurley, Julia Carins, Jay Kassirer, Sharyn Rundle-Thiele, Robert W. Palmatier, Rowena Merritt, Scott K. Weaven and Nancy Lee
The purpose of this paper is synthesise social marketing literature over the past fifty years and deliver a set of guiding tenets to propel social marketing’s agenda forward.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is synthesise social marketing literature over the past fifty years and deliver a set of guiding tenets to propel social marketing’s agenda forward.
Design/methodology/approach
Across three strands, this paper amalgamates theoretical and practitioner evidence from social marketing. This synthesis commences with a review, summary and critical discussion of five decades of social marketing research. Across Strands 2 and 3, the authors review 412 social marketing interventions reported across 10 evidence reviews and 238 case studies.
Findings
This paper demonstrates social marketing’s use of fundamental marketing principles and capability to achieve behaviour change outcomes. Social marketers have built frameworks and processes that non-profit organisations, government agencies and policymakers seeking to enact change can use. This paper delivers five tenets that summarise the findings of the three strands and delivers research priorities for the next 50 years of social marketing research to drive the field forward.
Research limitations/implications
Drawing on five decades of learning, this paper proposes research priorities that can be applied to refine, recalibrate and future-proof social marketing’s success in making the world a better place.
Practical implications
This paper demonstrates the value of social marketing science and helps bridge gaps between theory and practice, and further strengthens social marketing’s value proposition. This paper provides confidence that money invested in social marketing programs is well spent.
Originality/value
This paper delivers a forward-looking perspective and provides social marketing academics and practitioners with confidence that it can assist in overcoming society’s most pressing issues. The paper encompasses key social marketing literature since it was founded 50 years ago. Five tenets will guide social marketing forward: evidencing marketing principles, operationalisation of processes, principles and activities, implementing systems thinking, creating and testing marketing theory and guiding a new social marketing era.
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Natalia Vershinina, Rowena Barrett and Peter McHardy
The purpose of this paper is to explore the logics that expert entrepreneurs use when faced with a critical incident threat.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the logics that expert entrepreneurs use when faced with a critical incident threat.
Design/methodology/approach
Attempts have been made to define “entrepreneurial logic”. This paper is influenced by Sarasvathy’s work on high-performance entrepreneurs, which finds that when faced with uncertainty entrepreneurs employ unconventional logic, and encompasses later research acknowledging social contexts where entrepreneurs operate. A typology of decision-making logics is developed, taking into account the situation of crisis. Seven expert entrepreneurs who faced crisis and, despite this, are still successfully operating businesses were interviewed. The paper develops a critical incidents methodology.
Findings
Experienced entrepreneurs were found to tend towards causal logic when “the stakes were high” and the decision may affect the survival of their business. They also weigh up options before acting and tend to seek advice from trusted “others” within their network before or after they have made a decision. A mixture of causal and intuitive logic is evident in decisions dealing with internal business problems.
Research limitations/implications
The decisions that entrepreneurs make shape and define their business and their ability to recover from crisis. If researchers can develop an understanding of how entrepreneurs make decisions – what information they draw upon, what support systems they use and the logic of their decision-making and rationalisation – then this can be used to help structure support.
Originality/value
By exploring decision-making through critical incidents we offer an innovative way to understand context-rich, first-hand experiences and behaviours of entrepreneurs around a focal point.
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Industrial relations in small firms, when they are defined in terms of their employment size, are generally described as harmonious. Industrial relations in small firms operating…
Abstract
Industrial relations in small firms, when they are defined in terms of their employment size, are generally described as harmonious. Industrial relations in small firms operating in the Australian information industry are explored in this paper, as are reasons for those industrial relations. Although the study reported here can be used to support the “small is beautiful” view, this ignores the fact that industrial relations in large firms in this industry are not greatly different. How size affects industrial relations in one small firm is examined and it is proposed that, on its own, size does not provide an adequate explanation for industrial relations in small firms in the Australian information industry.
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Rowena Senior, Elizabeth Cleaver, Gilmar Queiros, Helen King and Kirstin Barnett
This discussion paper supports the new development of Apprenticeships at Level 8 of the UK’s Framework for Higher Education Qualifications (QAA, 2014). This exciting development…
Abstract
Purpose
This discussion paper supports the new development of Apprenticeships at Level 8 of the UK’s Framework for Higher Education Qualifications (QAA, 2014). This exciting development, one that employers and universities had been waiting for paves the way for, apprenticeships, sold as the ladder of opportunity, to go all the way to the top.
Design/methodology/approach
Here, we explore in brief the emergence of the new apprenticeship landscape and the importance of the addition of this new highest of levels.
Findings
Importantly, however, we make the case that such progress needs to be met with an equally progressive approach to the design of the new doctoral pathway.
Research limitations/implications
We sketch out a possible shell for the assessment of a Doctoral Apprenticeship, one that allows for flexible occupationally relevant inputs to create an applicable role-based and academically rigourous whole.
Originality/value
The importance of such a design is discussed within the context of the potential for impact in three priority areas: social justice, broadening the talent pool and ensuring the relevance and sustainability of the doctoral award.
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Kathleen Simione, Rowena Ortiz-Walters, Julia M. Fullick-Jagiela and Patricia S. Kelly
Team-based assignments must be constructed to contribute to the effective development of teamwork skills, an important learning objective for most schools of business. The purpose…
Abstract
Purpose
Team-based assignments must be constructed to contribute to the effective development of teamwork skills, an important learning objective for most schools of business. The purpose of this paper is to understand how students view the usefulness of team assignments in order to inform more effective pedagogical techniques related to team-based assignments and the development of student teamwork competencies.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from Likert-scale online surveys administered to students upon completion of the first-year team-based introductory business course. Survey items were developed to assess the team-related activities and components in the course and students’ perceived usefulness of team-based assignments. Results from exploratory factor analyses are presented.
Findings
Data analyses indicated that survey items contributed to students’ perceived usefulness of team-based assignments. Across three studies, the authors developed a new measure to evaluate effectiveness of team-based assignments.
Practical implications
For those educators who utilize team-based assignments in their courses, this study provides a much needed measure to assess the effectiveness of assignments intended to develop students’ teamwork competencies. The findings also serve to provide evidence of assurance of learning, and evidence of how students are developing in the area of interpersonal skills and abilities to manage interactions that most schools of business and universities deem as essential learning outcomes as a result of Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business requirements.
Originality/value
Evidence from online surveys of 755 students in a pilot study and two additional studies conducted longitudinally over a two-year period support a new measure to assess the usefulness of specific team assignments.
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Reading African American literature through the lens of American legal history broadly construed and reading American legal history through the lens of African American literature…
Abstract
Reading African American literature through the lens of American legal history broadly construed and reading American legal history through the lens of African American literature reshapes both texts of American experience and provides new readings of the literature and new perspectives on the law. Consequences for the understanding of each socially constructed “text” of reality proceed from examining their common narratival practices, specifically calling for a new periodization and taxonomy of African American literature and for a new “romantic” history of American law.
Beth Sundstrom, Rowena Lyn Briones and Melissa Janoske
The purpose of this paper is to explore a postmodern approach to crisis management through the lens of complexity theory to understand six non-profit organizations’ communication…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore a postmodern approach to crisis management through the lens of complexity theory to understand six non-profit organizations’ communication responses to anti-abortion terrorism.
Design/methodology/approach
Researchers conducted a qualitative content analysis of publicly available documents from six non-profit organizations, which included 62 news releases and statements on organization web sites, 152 tweets, and 63 articles in national and local newspapers.
Findings
A history of violence and rituals of remembrance emerged as important pieces of organizational, personal, and social history surrounding anti-abortion terrorism. The process of self-organization facilitated calling publics to action and combating the “terrorism” naming problem. The non-profits’ dynamic environment exemplified the importance of coalition building to construct digital attractor basins, or networks extending beyond permeable boundaries, through a variety of strategies, including new media. Twitter served as a strange attractor, where the concept of interacting agents emerged as a key component of relationship building.
Research limitations/implications
Findings provide opportunities to expand complexity theory.
Practical implications
Findings suggest practical implications for anti-abortion counterterrorism and crisis management, and provide opportunities to develop communication counter measures.
Originality/value
Applying a complexity lens to the study of anti-abortion counterterrorism builds on the growing emphasis of the postmodern approach to crisis management and answers the call for further inquiry into the application of complexity theory to crisis situations. Furthermore, this study fills a gap in the study of crisis management by investigating how multiple organizations handle a crisis.
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Rowena Barrett and Susan Mayson
The purpose of this paper is to begin the process of exploring the intersection between entrepreneurship and HRM by developing an understanding of the nature of HRM in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to begin the process of exploring the intersection between entrepreneurship and HRM by developing an understanding of the nature of HRM in growth‐oriented small firms.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey of 600 small Australian businesses, conducted by CPA Australia in March 2002 to explore employment issues, is analysed by the authors.
Findings
The analysis shows that growth‐oriented small firms are more likely than non‐growing ones to use formal HRM practices where that means that they are written down, regularly applied or assured to take place.
Research limitations/implications
The data are a single snapshot of small firms in time (March 2002) and therefore, while non‐growing small firms can be identified amongst the sample, it is not correct to assume either that they have not grown in the past to reach their current size (with the exception of the single person firms) or that they will not grow in the future. Moreover it is not known whether the growth, which the growing small firms indicate they undertook, was or is sustained.
Practical implications
The result suggests that small firms seeking growth should reconsider their HRM practices in light of their business plans to ensure that there is a good “fit”.
Originality/value
The authors examine small firms in Australia, which are much smaller than their international counterparts, to see whether conclusions from overseas studies are relevant.