Business Commons^™

The Futures Of Law, Lawyers, And Law Schools: A Dialogue, Sameer M. Ashar, Benjamin H. Barton, Michael J. Madison, Rachel F. Moran

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On April 19 and 20, 2023, Professors Bernard Hibbitts and Richard Weisberg convened a conference at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law titled “Disarmed, Distracted, Disconnected, and Distressed: Modern Legal Education and the Unmaking of American Lawyers.” Four speakers concluded the event with a spirited conversation about themes expressed during the proceedings. Distilling a lively two days, they asked: what are the most critical challenges now facing US legal education and, by extension, lawyers and the communities they serve? Their agreements and disagreements were striking, so much so that Professors Hibbitts and Weisberg invited those four to extend their …

Layered Fiduciaries In The Information Age, Zhaoyi Li

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Technology companies such as Facebook have long been criticized for abusing customers’ personal information and monetizing user data in a manner contrary to customer expectations. Some commentators suggest fiduciary law could be used to restrict how these companies use their customers’ data. Under this framework, a new member of the fiduciary family called the “information fiduciary” was born. The concept of an information fiduciary is that a company providing network services to “collect, analyze, use, sell, and distribute personal information” owes customers and end-users a fiduciary duty to use the collected data to promote their interests, thereby assuming fiduciary liability …

Judicial Review Of Directors' Duty Of Care: A Comparison Between U.S. & China, Zhaoyi Li

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Articles 147 and 148 of the Company Law of the People’s Republic of China (“Chinese Company Law”) establish that directors owe a duty of care to their companies. However, both of these provisions fail to explain the role of judicial review in enforcing directors’ duty of care. The duty of care is a well-trodden territory in the United States, where directors’ liability is predicated on specific standards. The current American standard, adopted by many states, requires directors to “discharge their duties with the care that a person in a like position would reasonably believe appropriate under similar circumstances.” However, both …

Contextual Influences On Human Resources Development: Considerations And Evaluations On The Various External And Internal Factors That Shape And Influence Hrd In Organisations, Charles Alves De Castro

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This article aims to briefly understand and evaluate the main external and internal factors that impact directly on human resources development area within the organisations, mainly related to multinational companies. Also, it discusses the various aspects and influences on HRD-(Human Resources Development) such as societal, organisational/local, global, that impacts on costs, environment, regulations, policies, culture, beliefs, technology and values. This research was carried out by way of a literature review. This is important to demonstrate, explain and evaluate the current existent literature about this specific theme covered in this article. Furthermore, through this review we compared previous research on HRD. …

Liminal Entrepreneuring: The Creative Practices Of Nascent Necessity Entrepreneurs, Lucia Garcia-Lorenzo, Paul Donnelly, Lucia Sell-Trujillo, J. Miguel Imas

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This paper contributes to creative entrepreneurship studies through exploring ‘liminal entrepreneuring’, i.e., the organization-creation entrepreneurial practices and narratives of individuals living in precarious conditions. Drawing on a processual approach to entrepreneurship and Turner’s liminality concept, we study the transition from un(der)employment to entrepreneurship of 50 nascent necessity entrepreneurs (NNEs) in Spain, the United Kingdom, and Ireland. The paper asks how these agents develop creative entrepreneuring practices in their efforts to overcome their condition of ‘necessity’. The analysis shows how, in their everyday liminal entrepreneuring, NNEs disassemble their identities and social positions, experiment with new relationships and alternative visions of themselves, …

An Invitation Regarding Law And Legal Education, And Imagining The Future, Michael J. Madison

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This Essay consists of an invitation to participate in conversations about the future of legal education in ways that integrate rather than distinguish several threads of concern and revision that have emerged over the last decade. Conversations about the future of legal education necessarily include conversations about the future of law practice, legal services, and law itself. Some of those start with the somewhat stale questions: What are US law professors doing, what should they be doing, and why? Those questions are still relevant and important, but they are no longer the only relevant questions, and they are not the …

Review On The Km Applications In Public Organisations, Paul J. Mc Evoy, Mohamed A.F. Ragab

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Abstract: The rise in awareness of knowledge management as a viable organisational resource and potential source of competitive advantage has been the subject of a myriad of research to date. The phenomenon covers a multitude of disciplines, roles and procedures, and its subjectivity has at times mitigated its potential for pertinent study. Add to this mix, the public sector, which exhibits unusual, specific, bureaucratic and insular hierarchies which can make it difficult to assess it from a research perspective, and a pertinent case can be made for investigating the process of implementing knowledge management initiatives in this area.

Today's public …

Not For Free: Exploring The Collateral Costs Of Diversity In Legal Education, Spearit

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This essay examines some of the institutional costs of achieving a more diverse law student body. In recent decades, there has been growing support for diversity initiatives in education, and the legal academy is no exception. Yet for most law schools, diversity remains an elusive goal, some of which is the result of problems with anticipating the needs of diverse students and being able to deliver. These are some of the unseen or hidden costs associated with achieving greater diversity. Both law schools and the legal profession remain relatively stratified by race, which is an ongoing legacy of legal education’s …

Organizational Responses To Institutional Pressures: Reconfiguration Of Spaces In Nanosciences And Nanotechnologies, Nicolas Battard, Paul Donnelly, Vincent Mangematin

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The literature on organizational responses to institutional pressures describes responses ranging from compliance to resistance via different modes of decoupling. However, although these studies provide a greater understanding of the phenomenon, they tend to be disparate and to consider the different elements separately. Through a comparative case study of six research teams in the area of nanosciences and nanotechnologies, we offer three contributions. Our first is to the decoupling literature by way of a complementary and cohesive framework, which shows that organizations vary in their responses by reconfiguring their physical (policy and materiality), mental (meaning) and social (identity) spaces, and …

A Cross-Cultural Examination Of Preferences For Work Attributes, Melissa S. Woodard, Jane K. Miller, Daniel Miller, Kirk D. Silvernail, Chun Guo, Sudhir Nair, Mehmet Devrim Aydin, Ana Helosia Da Costa Lemos, Paul Donnelly, Vilmante Kumpikaite, Robert Marx, Linda M. Peters

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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between individual- and country-level values and preferences for job/organizational attributes. Design/methodology/approach – Survey data were collected from 475 full-time employees (average of nine years work experience, and three years in a managerial position) enrolled in part-time MBA programs in seven countries. Findings – Preference for a harmonious workplace is positively related to horizontal collectivism, whereas preference for remuneration/advancement is positively related to vertical individualism. The authors also find a positive relationship between preference for meaningful work and horizontal individualism, and between preference for employer prestige and social adjustment …

Supporting Sustainability Through Developing A Learning Network Among Traditional Food Producers: Applications Of Action Learning, Paul Coughlan, David Coghlan, Denise O'Leary, Clare Rigg, Doireann Barrett

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Purpose: The chapter describes and reflects upon an EU-funded research initiative, TRADEIT, which has attempted to develop a learning network among European traditional food producers as one way of contributing to the economic sustainability of the ventures, the social sustainability of the food’s regional character, and the environmental sustainability of food production through the use of traditional methods.

Design/methodology/approach: The chapter describes TRADEIT before moving on to an exploration of learning in organizations and networks. It outlines the action learning research methodology developed and implemented to explore the development of a learning network in TRADEIT. A single case history …

Turning To Case Studies As A Mechanism For Learning In Action Learning, Denise O'Leary, Paul Coughlan, Clare Rigg, David Coghlan

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Case studies are a useful means of capturing and sharing experiential knowledge by allowing researchers to explore the social, organisational and political contexts of a specific case. Although accounts of action learning are often reported using a case study approach, it is not common to see individual case studies being used as a learning practice within action learning sets. Drawing on a network action learning (NAL) project, this paper explores how the process of coaching, articulating, authoring, sharing and editing case studies provided a vehicle for learning and research within a NAL set. The intended contribution of this paper to …

Exploring The Importance Of Team Psychological Safety In The Development Of Two Interprofessional Teams, Denise O'Leary

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It has been previously demonstrated that interactions within interprofessional teams are characterised by effective communication, shared decision-making, and knowledge sharing. This article outlines aspects of an action research study examining the emergence of these characteristics within change management teams made up of nurses, general practitioners, physiotherapists, care assistants, a health and safety officer, and a client at two residential care facilities for older people in Ireland. The theoretical concept of team psychological safety (TPS) is utilised in presenting these characteristics. TPS has been defined as an atmosphere within a team where individuals feel comfortable engaging in discussion and reflection without …

The Challenges Of Leading Change In Health-Care Delivery From The Frontline, Vivienne Byers

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Aim: The public sector is facing turbulent times and this challenges nurses, who are expected to serve both patient interests and the efficiency drives of their organisations. In the context of implementing person-centred health policy, this paper explores the evolving role of front-line nurses as leaders and champions of change.

Background: Nurses can be seen to have some autonomy in health-care delivery. However, they are subject to systems of social control. In implementing person- centred policy, nurses can be seen to be doing the best they can within a constrained environment.

Method: A survey of nursing practice in person-centred health-policy …

Preparing For Service: A Template For 21st Century Legal Education, Michael J. Madison

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Legal educators today grapple with the changing dynamics of legal employment markets; the evolution of technologies and business models driving changes to the legal profession; and the economics of operating – and attending – a law school. Accrediting organizations and practitioners pressure law schools to prepare new lawyers both to be ready to practice and to be ready for an ever-fluid career path. From the standpoint of law schools in general and any one law school in particular, constraints and limitations surround us. Adaptation through innovation is the order of the day.

How, when, and in what direction should innovation …

Retaliation In An Eeo World,, Deborah L. Brake

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This Article examines how the prevalence of internal policies and complaint procedures for addressing discrimination in the workplace are affecting legal protections from retaliation. Retaliation has been an unusually active field of law lately. The Supreme Court’s heightened interest in taking retaliation cases in recent years has highlighted the central importance of retaliation protections to the integrity of discrimination law. The Court’s string of plaintiff victories in retaliation cases has earned it the reputation as a pragmatic, pro-employee Court when it comes to retaliation law. However, this view does not account for the proliferation and influence of employer EEO policies …

Tortifying Retaliation: Protected Activity At The Intersection Of Fault, Duty, And Causation, Deborah L. Brake

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In University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center v. Nassar, the Supreme Court broke its string of plaintiff victories in the eight retaliation cases it has decided since 2005. In its 2013 decision in that case, the Court rejected a mixed motive framework for Title VII’s retaliation provision, a part of the statute that Congress did not amend in 1991 when it adopted the motivating factor standard for proving discrimination under Title VII. For help construing what “because of” means in the retaliation claim, the Court looked to tort law, which it read as requiring plaintiffs to prove but-for causation …

Re-Theorizing The “Structure–Agency” Relationship: Figurational Theory, Organizational Change And The Gaelic Athletic Association, John Connolly, Paddy Dolan

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This article illustrates how the figurational sociology associated with Norbert Elias provides an alternative theoretical framework for explaining the relationship between, ‘individualorganization- society’ and organizational change, and in so doing transverses what is conceived as a false dichotomy between structure and agency. Through an historical case study of the Gaelic Athletic Association in Ireland, the ‘individual-organization-society’ relationship is conceptualized as overlapping figurations and organizational change is explained as figurational dynamics—the shifting social interdependencies between the individuals and groups comprising an organization, between that organization and other organizations, between social groups on a higher level of integration and competition. In tandem …

Employee Perspectives On The Post-Integration Stage Of A Micro-Merger, Jennifer Lawlor

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Purpose - This paper seeks to address the impact of an organisational change initiative on organisational employees, with specific reference to a micro-merger which occurred in a public sector, higher education organisation in Ireland. The literature on change management is examined, with specific reference to the post-integration stage of a micro-merger. The paper then reports on a study that was undertaken in an Irish higher education institution and focuses on the impact of the micro-merger on employees. Specifically, the study seeks to address their perceptions and emotions relating to a heretofore under-researched area in the merger literature, namely the impact …

Tracing The Path To ‘Tiger Hood’: Ireland’S Move From Protectionism To Outward-Looking Economic Development, Paul Donnelly

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Up to very recently, Ireland was spoken of in very adulatory terms, to the point of being dubbed the ‘Celtic Tiger.’ However, the tiger is no more, having been consumed by a property-led boom, the collapse of which was compounded by the global financial crisis. Taking path dependence as lens, this paper looks at an early sequence of events that shaped the country’s path to ‘tiger hood’, i.e., the policy shift from protectionism to outward-looking economic development. From relatively contingent and unpredictable beginnings evolved an institutional matrix, with a clear focus on the global, that, ex ante, could not have …

Aligning Strategy And Talent In Creative Professional Service Firms, Deirdre Mcquillan, Pamela Sharkey Scott, Vincent Mangematin

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Purpose: Reliance on individual talent and motivation renders creative Professional Service Firms (PSFs) highly dependent on their ability to attract and mobilise the right individuals. This paper builds an integrated framework showing firstly how creative industry PSFs can differ in their strategy for growth, and secondly how these alternative strategies for growth can influence the firm’s approach to organising and the type of talent required. Design/methodology/approach: Findings are based on a series of interviews with managing directors, senior management and practitioners of architectural organisations in a single country, combined with an extensive literature review. Findings – Our framework illustrates how …

Organizational Centralization As Figurational Dynamics: Movements And Counter-Movements In The Gaelic Athletic Association, John Connolly, Paddy Dolan

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In this paper we develop aspects of Elias’s figurational approach within organisational studies by using some of the core theoretical constructs as a model to explain organi­sational change through an empirical investigation of the dynamics of centralisation–decentralisation processes in an Irish sports organisation. Based on historical analysis, the paper documents the expanding interdependencies, figurational dynamics and shifting power balances which led to a gradual, non-linear movement towards greater integration and centralisation within the organisation.

Constructing And Disrupting Ireland's Industrial Development Authority, Paul Donnelly

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Actor-network theory is considered to have great potential for broadening and deepening our grasp of institutional work (LAWRENCE; SUDDABY, 2006). Given its focus on process, ANT offers a means to breathe life into the practices associated with institutionalization. With Callon’s (1986) four moments of translation as analytical lens, and with Ireland’s Industrial Development Authority as empirical example, I seek to address the concerns of Clegg and Machado da Silva (2009) by reconsidering “the role of agency, power, persistence and change in the process of institutionalization”.

Focusing On Process And History: Path Dependence, Paul Donnelly

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In recognition of the calls for more processual and historically informed organizational theorizing, this chapter considers the notion of path dependency, an approach which holds that a historical path of choices has the character of a branching process with a self-reinforcing dynamic such that preceding steps in a particular direction induce further movement in the same direction, thereby making the possibility of switching to some other previously credible alternative more difficult. Path dependence seeks to assess how process, sequence and temporality can be best incorporated into explanation, the focus of the researcher being on particular outcomes, temporal sequencing and the …

The International Protean Career: Four Women’S Narratives, Marian Crowley-Henry, David Weir

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In this paper, we share individual narratives outlining the experiences of four well-educated western women following a permanent international career in the South of France. By virtue of detailed interview transcripts and contextual information regarding the specificity of the location in question, a comprehensive picture of the experiences and choices of individual women in leadership business positions on an international level is painted. Our aim is not to generalise the findings to a wider population, but to gain an insight into the depth and complexity of career issues for women in general, and particularly for women working in a foreign …

The Very Uncertain Prospect Of 'Global' Convergence In Corporate Governance, Douglas M. Branson

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Elites in the United States legal academy have been uniform in their prediction of "global" convergence on a single model of governance for large publicly held corporations. That model is, of course, the U.S. model. The evidence, though, is only of some trans Atlantic convergence with an outlier here or there. Moreover, the existing scholarship is culturally and economically insensitive. U.S. style corporate governance, with its requirements for truly independent directors who will confront and remove badly performing CEOs, and which has as an element lawsuits brought by activist shareholders, is simply inappropriate for many cultural settings. Post Confucian and …