Ilia Bider, Martin Henkel, Stewart Kowalski and Erik Perjons
This paper aims to report on a project aimed at using simulation for improving the quality of teaching and learning modeling skills. More specifically, the project goal was to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to report on a project aimed at using simulation for improving the quality of teaching and learning modeling skills. More specifically, the project goal was to facilitate the students to acquire skills of building models of organizational structure and behavior through analysis of internal and external documents, and interviews with employees and management. An important skill that practitioners in the information systems field need to possess is the skill of modeling information systems. The main problem with acquiring modeling skills is to learn how to extract knowledge from the unstructured reality of business life.
Design/methodology/approach
To achieve the goal, a solution was introduced in the form of a computerized environment utilizing multimedia to simulate a case of an apprenticeship situation. The paper gives an overview of the problem that the solution addresses, presents the solution and reports on the trial completed in a first-year undergraduate course at Stockholm University.
Findings
The results of the trial indicate that using rich multimedia along with a case-based learning approach did improve the overall performance of the students. It was also shown that both students’ and the teachers’ attitudes toward the solution were positive.
Originality/value
The solution presented in this paper, using computer simulation in teaching/learning by focusing on an apprenticeship situation, can be reused by other university teachers, especially in the Information Systems discipline. This solution can thus be used in teaching, system design, requirements engineering, business analysis and other courses typical for information systems.
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Tobias Witt, Katharina Stahlecker and Jutta Geldermann
Energy scenarios have long been successfully used to inform decision-making in energy systems planning, with a wide range of different methodological approaches for developing and…
Abstract
Purpose
Energy scenarios have long been successfully used to inform decision-making in energy systems planning, with a wide range of different methodological approaches for developing and evaluating them. The purpose of this study is to analyze the existing approaches and classify them with a morphological box.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper builds upon the methodological literature on developing and evaluating energy scenarios and presents a morphological box, which comprises parameters describing the scenario properties, (energy system) model properties, scientific practice and institutional settings of energy scenarios. The newly developed morphological box is applied to four selected energy scenarios of the German energy transition.
Findings
The morphological box is a suitable tool to classify current energy scenarios. The exemplary application also points toward four challenges in the current practice of energy scenario development and evaluation: increasing complexity of decision problems, transparency of the scenario development process, transparency of the decision support process and communication of uncertainty.
Originality/value
The morphological box of energy scenarios helps researchers soundly document and present their methodological approaches for energy scenario development and evaluation. It also facilitates the work of analysts who want to classify, interpret and compare energy scenarios from a methodological perspective. Finally, it supports the identification of gaps between current practice and the methodological literature on energy scenarios, leading to the development of new types of energy scenarios.
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Geneva Gudmundson, jay johnson, Jessica W. Chin and Margery Holman
With social media use on the rise and little indication that sport team hazing ceremonies are declining, the amount and types of exposure and awareness of hazing and its…
Abstract
With social media use on the rise and little indication that sport team hazing ceremonies are declining, the amount and types of exposure and awareness of hazing and its potentially detrimental impacts are shifting for athletes, the public and school administrators alike. This chapter describes relationships between hazing in sport and social media use in university athletics. These two areas of research have been investigated separately but warrant a closer examination to understand how they are intertwined. In this analysis, we include findings from our larger national-scale sport hazing study that produced a second stream of data specific to social media use. Data are derived from interviews with university athletic directors, coaches and athletes to spotlight: (1) uses of social media in the context of athletics, (2) their understanding of social media's relationship to hazing and (3) experiences with social media and hazing education. We also present recommendations provided by the researchers, and athletes, coaches and athletic directors, for athletic administration use in developing educational and informational resources that address the interconnections between social media use and hazing. This chapter describes how athletic departments and coaches perceived and (dis)engaged from discussions around social media, the ways that university athletes and teams engaged in hazing practices, the diversified and multiple uses of social media on teams differing by gender, highlighting a (lack) of educational programming provided for athletes by their university athletic departments centred around social media use and sport hazing as both separate and interconnected topics.
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Hazing, a practice where existing group members subject newcomers to humiliation, embarrassment or abuse, is often perceived as either violent or harmless fun. Regardless of its…
Abstract
Hazing, a practice where existing group members subject newcomers to humiliation, embarrassment or abuse, is often perceived as either violent or harmless fun. Regardless of its nature, all forms of hazing carry a significant risk of harm. The dual-factor model of mental health provides a framework for understanding this harm. This model posits that mental health and mental illness, while related, are not identical. In other words, individuals need more than just the absence of mental illness to thrive; they also require positive mental health. This chapter seeks to apply the dual-factor model to the context of hazing. It will first introduce the model of mental health, followed by an exploration of how violent hazing can potentially lead to mental illness. It will also examine how hazing, even when perceived as harmless fun, can result in languishing mental health. This chapter will conclude with recommendations and strategies to foster safe and caring organisational environments. The goal is to create spaces where all members can participate and flourish without the fear of harm, thereby promoting both individual and collective well-being.
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In recent years there has been a significant increase in the involvement of Australian schools with various aspects of the law and this has led to a number of claims that…
Abstract
In recent years there has been a significant increase in the involvement of Australian schools with various aspects of the law and this has led to a number of claims that education has become legalised. A major consequence of this development is the need for principals to have a level of legal literacy sufficient to identify when a legal problem is developing in their school. Moreover, given the increased involvement of schools with the law, there would seem to be a need for principals to introduce preventive legal risk management strategies into school policies and practices. However, to implement such programmes, principals require a sound knowledge of those aspects of the law that they are required to manage. A recent study of some 300 principals from government schools in Queensland raises serious questions, however, regarding the level of principals’ professional knowledge of the law. This paper examines the concept of the legalisation of education and the extent to which school principals’ professional knowledge is adequate to meet the demands the law is making of them.
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This study examines gestures, themes, message copy points and imagery, and strategy motives reflected in corporate advertising appearing in the China Times and United Daily News…
Abstract
This study examines gestures, themes, message copy points and imagery, and strategy motives reflected in corporate advertising appearing in the China Times and United Daily News, two leading newspapers, in the month following the devastating Chin‐Chin earthquake in Taiwan in September 1999. The study identified four possible corporate strategy motives in post‐crisis corporate communications: social responsibility, communal relationship building, enlightened self‐interest and impression management. A content analysis of adverts (n=100) suggested communal relationship building drove corporate advertising endeavours. Corporate philanthropy was the most common gesture described in the adverts, and the most frequent themes and message components focused on the restoration of society. No significant differences were found between companies headquartered in Taiwan versus elsewhere, or between companies headquartered in Asia versus the West. Implications for examining crisis communications and underlying motives behind public relations communications are discussed.
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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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The purpose of this paper is to understand how external auditors communicate with audit committees (ACs).
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to understand how external auditors communicate with audit committees (ACs).
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 53 interviews were conducted with participants in the ACs of 22 French companies listed in the CAC 40 index, including external and internal auditors, CFOs, AC chairpersons, and members.
Findings
In multiple accountability relationships, external auditors sit in the middle. They therefore use impression management (IM). While AC members expect them to be transparent, they are also expected to preserve managers’ “face” by sustaining impressions of consistency. The construction of impressions of consistency and transparency takes place mainly backstage, through time-consuming teamwork shared by auditors and CFOs. External auditors have power to make things transparent, but the use of such power is tricky, because it can damage relationships with CFOs. External auditors have a difficult “discrepant role” (Goffman, 1959) to play.
Practical implications
This study provides insights into what occurs behind the scenes with ACs, which can help regulators think deeper about relationships between external auditors and ACs.
Originality/value
This research makes contribution to governance, IM, and AC literature. It analyzes the AC process from external auditors’ – rather than AC members’ – points of view. Highlighting the AC process backstage, it shows that IM can be carried out collectively toward an internal rather than external audience and demonstrates that external auditors practice rather than limiting IM.
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In the face of increasing resource insecurity, environmental degradation and climate change, more governments and businesses are now embracing the concept of the circular economy…
Abstract
In the face of increasing resource insecurity, environmental degradation and climate change, more governments and businesses are now embracing the concept of the circular economy. This chapter presents some historical background to the concept, with particular attention paid to its assumed opposite, the ‘linear’ or growth economy. While the origins of the circular economy concept are to be found in 1960s environmentalism, the chapter draws attention to the influence of the then ‘new’ sciences of ecology and ‘cybernetics’ in shaping the public environmental discourse of the period. It also draws attention to the background of the present linear economy in postwar policies that encouraged reconstruction and a social and economic democratisation across the West, including an expansion of mass-consumption. It emphasises the role of the 1960s counterculture in generating a popular reaction against this expansionary growth-based agenda, and its influence in shaping subsequent environmentalism, including the ‘metabolic’ and ecological economic understanding of the environmental crisis that informs the concept of the circular economy. Reflecting upon this historical preamble, the chapter concludes that more attention should be paid to the economic, cultural and social contexts of consumption, now more clearly the main driver of our global environmental crisis. Without now engaging more directly with the ‘consumption problem’, the chapter argues, it seems unlikely that the goals of the circular economy can be met.