IN so far as the behaviour of an aeroplane in flight depends upon the behaviour of its pilot, it is relatively unpredictable, and for practical purposes seems likely to remain so…
Abstract
IN so far as the behaviour of an aeroplane in flight depends upon the behaviour of its pilot, it is relatively unpredictable, and for practical purposes seems likely to remain so, except from a statistical point of view. It is, however, reasonable to suppose that by making certain simplifying assumptions it will be feasable to regard the pilot as a machine which responds to given situations in definite ways; in other words, to regard him as a form of servo mechanism with characteristics which may be adjusted to fit the average behaviour, though necessarily differing more or less from that of any given individual.
The topic of whistleblowing is achieving prominence as a question of social policy. Some influential voices are suggesting that far from whistleblowing — informing on…
Abstract
The topic of whistleblowing is achieving prominence as a question of social policy. Some influential voices are suggesting that far from whistleblowing — informing on organisations —, being socially undesirable, it may in certain circumstances be an activity deserving high praise. Inevitably it entails huge risks to the activist, and these risks need to be personally and carefully considered. John Banham, Director General of the Confederation of British Industry, wrote in support of the Social Audit report on the subject (Winfield 1990), and a committee established by the Speaker of the House of Commons has suggested the possibility of honouring whistleblowers in the British Honours system for their good corporate citizenship. There have also been landmark reports in America, Australia and Canada (Leahy 1978, Electoral and Administrative Review Commission 1990, Ontario Law Reform Commission 1986).
Owen Holland and Phil Husbands
The purpose of this paper is to describe the origins, members, activities, and influence of the Ratio Club, a British cybernetic dining club that met between 1949 and 1958…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe the origins, members, activities, and influence of the Ratio Club, a British cybernetic dining club that met between 1949 and 1958. Although its membership included some of the best known British cyberneticists, such as Grey Walter and Ross Ashby, along with pioneering scientists such as Alan Turing, the club is poorly documented, and its significance is difficult to establish from published sources.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach involved the consultation and analysis of unpublished material in both private and public archives in the UK and the USA, coupled with interviews with surviving members, guests, and contemporaries.
Findings
The Ratio Club grew out of a distinctively British strand of cybernetic activity that was mainly fuelled by the deployment of biologists to engineering activities during the Second World War. It was also strongly influenced by the approach of the psychologist Kenneth Craik. Although members were keenly aware of contemporary American developments, such as Wiener's approach to the mathematics of control, and the psychological and sociological concerns of the Macy Conference, the emphasis of the club was on the application of cybernetic ideas and information theory to biology and the brain. In contrast to the wide influence the later Macy conferences exercised through their published transcripts, the Ratio Club influenced its core disciplines though its members, several of whom became prominent and effective advocates of the cybernetic approach.
Originality/value
This is the first journal paper to give an authoritative, detailed, and accurate account of the club's origins, activities, and importance.
Details
Keywords
Michele N. Medina-Craven, Kathryn Ostermeier, Pratigya Sigdyal and Benjamin David McLarty
The purpose of this study is to systematically examine and classify the multitude of personality traits that have emerged in the literature beyond the Big Five (Five Factor Model…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to systematically examine and classify the multitude of personality traits that have emerged in the literature beyond the Big Five (Five Factor Model) since the turn of the 21st century. The authors argue that this represents a new phase of personality research that is characterized both by construct proliferation and a movement away from the Big Five and demonstrates how personality as a construct has substantially evolved in the 21st century.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted a comprehensive, systematic review of personality research from 2000 to 2020 across 17 management and psychology journals. This search yielded 1,901 articles, of which 440 were relevant and subsequently coded for this review.
Findings
The review presented in this study uncovers 155 traits, beyond the Big Five, that have been explored, which the authors organize and analyze into 10 distinct categories. Each category comprises a definition, lists the included traits and highlights an exemplar construct. The authors also specify the significant research outcomes associated with each trait category.
Originality/value
This review categorizes the 155 personality traits that have emerged in the management and psychology literature that describe personality beyond the Big Five. Based on these findings, this study proposes new avenues for future research and offers insights into the future of the field as the concept of personality has shifted in the 21st century.
Details
Keywords
Considerable reliance is placed upon whistleblowers in protecting assets and detecting and avoiding financial crime. Despite this, they suffer persecution and often dismissal, and…
Abstract
Considerable reliance is placed upon whistleblowers in protecting assets and detecting and avoiding financial crime. Despite this, they suffer persecution and often dismissal, and find they are abandoned by the organisations they thought they were helping, and by society at large whose wider interests they imagined they were serving. There are some signs of recognition of the contribution they make and the injustices they suffer, but equally there continues to be opposition. Internal audit whistleblowers are highlighted in case studies to indicate the ambivalent situation they find themselves in, and to highlight the problems that any employee may face. There is an urgent need to provide legal and other protections to whistleblowers.
The purpose of this paper is to explain the determination of China's agricultural foreign trade pattern since the World Trade Organization (WTO) accession.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explain the determination of China's agricultural foreign trade pattern since the World Trade Organization (WTO) accession.
Design/methodology/approach
The neoclassical trade theory indicates that differences in both technology levels and factor endowments can explain the international trade pattern. In terms of a neoclassical framework based on the restricted profit function, this paper employs the province‐level panel data to investigate whether China's agricultural foreign trade pattern is consistent with the neoclassical explanation.
Findings
The findings indicate that China's agricultural foreign trade pattern is evidently characterized by regional specific features. In the eastern region, agricultural foreign trade pattern is jointly determined by differences in technology levels and factor endowments. Agricultural foreign trade patterns are driven in the central and western regions by land and capital endowments, respectively. The findings also imply that the utilization of comparative advantage in China's agriculture needs to be exploited further.
Originality/value
As far as the author knows, this paper is the first to apply the neoclassical framework based on the restricted profit function and employ the province‐level panel data to investigate the determination of China's agricultural foreign trade pattern.
Details
Keywords
Biyun Hu and Liang Meng
Despite its practical importance, the emotion of awe has received scant research attention in the organizational literature. To facilitate future scholarship on this important…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite its practical importance, the emotion of awe has received scant research attention in the organizational literature. To facilitate future scholarship on this important topic, the authors explore and compare the elicitors of awe at work in three countries representing two culture clusters, including the USA and Canada (the Anglo cluster) and China (the Confucian Asia cluster).
Design/methodology/approach
The authors gathered responses from 163 working adults from the USA and Canada and 126 working adults from China using open-response survey, and analyzed each response following the guidance of grounded theory.
Findings
Across cultures, there are 10 common elicitors of awe, including virtue of organization, ability and achievement of organization, beauty of workplace, virtue of colleagues, ability and achievement of colleagues, dedication of colleagues, charisma of colleagues, status and power of colleagues, personal growth and achievement and perceived meaningfulness. Looking within cultures, the authors found two awe elicitors that are specific to China: status and power of organization, and work content.
Practical implications
Organizations and supervisors wishing to induce the emotion of awe would be well-advised to pay attention to the design of their workplace, as well as their attitudes and behaviors toward employees, customers and the general public.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the emotion literature, organizational literature and cross-cultural literature by demonstrating elicitors of awe in the workplace across the Anglo cluster and the Confucian Asia cluster.
Details
Keywords
James Langenfeld, Jonathan T. Tomlin, David A. Weiskopf and Georgi Giozov
To develop a framework for systematically defining the relevant market for intermediate goods that incorporates downstream market conditions.
Abstract
Purpose
To develop a framework for systematically defining the relevant market for intermediate goods that incorporates downstream market conditions.
Methodology/approach
We combine the well-established “Hicks-Marshall” conditions of derived demand for inputs with “critical loss/critical elasticity of demand” to yield insights into the definition of antitrust markets for intermediate goods and the competitive effects from a merger.
Findings
We show that examining “Hicks-Marshall” conditions can provide a more rigorous framework for analyzing relevant markets for intermediate goods. We also show that solely examining demand substitution possibilities for direct customers of an input can lead to an incorrect market definition.
Research limitations/implications
Our framework may be difficult to apply in circumstances when several different downstream products use the input being examined and each of those downstream products has a different elasticity of demand.
Practical implications
We illustrate how reasonable ranges for key parameters relating to the ability of firms to substitute to other inputs and to adjust to downstream market conditions will often be sufficient to define antitrust markets for intermediate goods in practice.
Originality/value
Previous antitrust analysis has not systematically analyzed the impact of downstream market conditions in assessing market definition for intermediate goods. The framework we develop will be useful to future researchers attempting to define relevant markets for intermediate goods and evaluating the competitive effects of a merger.