Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Technology Policy And Change In Developing Economies: Advancing A Banking Strategy For World Developments, M. O. Mahdi, Patrick Dawson

Patrick Dawson

This article examines technology policy and change in the Sudanese banking industry. Attention is given to the context of a developing economy that is aiming to fast track into the international banking arena through the introduction and use of new technology that is consistent with banking IT associated with more advanced industrialised economies. Some of the problems of translating a technology policy into practice and overcoming cultural, historical and socio-political legacies and attitudes are analysed and a number of implications for the adoption of IT in developing counties are assessed. Attention is given to the role of managers in translating …

Organizational Change Stories And Management Research: Facts Or Fiction, Patrick M. Dawson

Patrick Dawson

Company change stories are often constructed around a linear series of ‘successful’ events which serve to show the company in a positive light to any interested external party. These stories of company success sanitise this process and offer data for change experts to formulate neat linear prescriptions on how to best manage change. This position is criticised in this paper which draws on processual case study data to argue that change is a far more complex muddied political process consisting of competing histories and ongoing multiple change narratives which may vie for dominance in seeking to be the change story. …

Changing Manufacturing Practices: An Appraisal Of The Processual Approach, Patrick M. Dawson

Patrick Dawson

There has been a longstanding interest in human factors and the processes of change in manufacturing organizations. This paper focuses attention on the establishment and contribution of a processual perspective to understanding change. A history of the processual approach is outlined and some of the main defining elements and ongoing developments are appraised. Field data drawn from a study of cellular work arrangements at a mirror manufacturing plant is used to highlight the interlocking and overlapping dynamics between substance, context, and politics. In advocating the benefits of a processual perspective, it is argued that during the uptake of cellular manufacturing …

Social Innovation, Sustainable Futures And Commercial Concerns: People, Profits And Social Well-Being, Patrick M. Dawson, L. Daniel

Patrick Dawson

This paper draws attention to the growing interest in social innovations as they seek to improve the well being of people, communities and society. Social innovations are recognised as the development of new concepts, strategies and tools that support individuals and groups to achieve improved well-being. We examine here the growing interest in social innovation before turning our attention to more theoretical and conceptual concerns. We examine the link between the social and technical dimensions of innovation and identify how the scope of our definition is important in delineating our phenomena of interest. Some of the earlier academic work on …

The Way It Really Happened: Competing Narratives In The Political Process Of Technological Change, Patrick M. Dawson, D. Buchanan

Patrick Dawson

Corporate narratives concerning technological change are often constructed around a linear series of events that show the organization in a positive light to internal and external observers. These narratives often sanitize the change process, and present data from which commentators can formulate neat linear prescriptions on how to implement new technology. In contrast, this paper draws on processual-contextual theoretical perspectives to argue that technological change is a more complex political process represented by multiple ongoing narratives which compete with each other for dominance as definitive change accounts. A central aim of this paper, therefore, is to demonstrate the analytical significance …

Designer Deviance: Enterprise And Deviance In Cultural Change Programs, R Badham, Karin Garrety, V. Morrigan, M. Zanko, Patrick Dawson

Patrick Dawson

This article explores the value of investigating cultural change programmes as exercises in engineering deviance. It does so through a case study of an organizational development cultural change programme at Sprogwheels, a large Australian corporation. Drawing on and extending the classic work of Becker (1966), the article details how the programme combined a moral crusade against what it sought to have labelled as the ‘deviant conservatism’ of the existing organizational culture with social support for ‘deviant radicalism’, in the form of a counter-cultural, self-enterprising set of middle managers promoting corporate change. The article explores the complex and contradictory ideas of …

Working At The Coalface: Being A Miner In Times Of Change, Peter D. Mclean, Patrick M. Dawson

Patrick Dawson

A case study analysis of the introduction of a new system for appraising worker performance in an Australian coal mine is used to explore the related concepts of identity and culture that are central to explaining individual and group behaviour in organizational context (Irrmann, 2002: 164). The change initiative was initiated by management following a search and evaluation of the general business environment to see what other organizations were doing to improve their operations. There was no prior consultation with employees, nor were any attempts made to involve mine workers before implementing what management described as a more ‘scientific’ and …

A Conceptual Model Of The Factors Affecting The Choice Of Nonprofit Organisation By Large Corporations In Australia, John Cantrell, Elias Kyriazis, Gary I. Noble, Jennifer Algie

John Cantrell

This paper develops a new conceptualisation of corporate giving which advances our knowledge in the field of nonprofit marketing through the development of a model which assists in identifying the drivers of corporate giving in Australia. Existing conceptualisations are limited in that the commercial realities of corporate life and the pressures that many organizations face in achieving concrete outcomes from their giving behaviour have not been properly reflected in research results. In an environment of increased competition amongst nonprofits for donations in terms of money, resources, and volunteers the better understanding of how and why corporations give will enable nonprofit …

Women Leading Family Businesses, Mary Barrett

Mary Barrett

Women in leadership roles in family businesses are still not regarded as the norm. Media representations of women CEOs of family firms still emphasize the sensational and unique aspects of their presence at the top, especially with stories about the 'little girl' who became a successor in a family business, the devastated widow who took over her late husband's business and led it to great heights, or the sister who outperformed an older brother in a family owned automobile dealership. Yet women should not be seen as oddities in business, including family business, when in most countries they form slightly …

Research As Praxis: A Research Mentoring Platform For Academic Women, Mary A. Barrett, Sara Dolnicar, Mary Kaidonis, Lee C. Moerman, Melanie J. Randle, Christa Wood

Mary Barrett

In response to the continuing under-representation of women in academic positions of higher rank, the Faculty of Commerce and the Employment, Equity and Diversity unit at the University of Wollongong jointly supported a Women in Commerce Research Platform (WICRP) with the view to increasing research of women in commerce. We describe the WICRP and evaluate it in the context of prior research related to the specific challenges faced by female academics. The WICRP pilot period was reviewed using surveys and open ended questions and our findings are generally consistent with prior research. This paper draws on these findings and in …

Have They Learnt To Interrupt?: Comparing How Women Management Students And Senior Women Managers In Australia Perceive Workplace Communication Dilemmas, Mary Barrett

Mary Barrett

Purpose - Changing language ideology and the decreased popularity of overt feminism suggest that aspiring female managers may be less influenced than senior women managers by the gender of the speaker in evaluating whether specific communication strategies are effective and probable. The study investigates this issue. Design/methodology/approach - 255 second-year female management students evaluated strategies for the same workplace dilemmas as senior women managers (Barrett 2004). Findings - For short and medium term dilemmas students, like senior women managers, regarded masculine communication strategies with a feminine element as effective. They were less influenced by the speaker's gender than senior women …

The Application Of Social/Political Theories To The Spliss (Sport Policy Factors Leading To International Sporting Success) Model, Winston Wing Hong To, Bryn Jones, Juliann Desjardins, Darwin Semotiuk

Winston Wing Hong To

This research focuses if a sociocultural theory such as the stakeholder theory or social value theory can be applicable to enhance the theoretical explanation of the SPLISS (Sport Policy Factors Leading to International Sporting Success) model. The SPLISS model is a comparative high performance sport (HPS) model which was created by researchers from Belgium, United Kingdom, and Netherlands in 2002 with the purpose of seeking which factors will lead countries to international sporting success (e.g. Olympics, Paralympics, World Championships) (Legg & DeBosscher, nd). A comparative HPS model is a research model that has a set of ingredients composed by academic …

Gaming In Massachusetts: Can Casinos Bring 'Good Jobs' To The Commonwealth?, Marlene Kim, Susan Moir, Anneta Argyres

Marlene Kim

This study examines the quality of jobs in the United States gaming industry and analyzes enabling legislation in five states that have legalized gaming. The authors find that the gaming industry -- particularly the unionized sector of the casino hotel industry -- provides good jobs with good wages and benefits for workers with less than a high school degree. The authors conlcude that workforce development efforts in Masschusetts must include strategies to address improving the quality of entry-level jobs.

Teaching With The Situation: Jersey Shore As A Popular Culture Example In Information Literacy Classes, Amy Springer

Amy Springer

No abstract provided.

Evaluating The Impact Of The Un Convention On The Use Of Electronic Communications In International Contracts On Domestic Contract Law: The Singapore Example, Eliza Mik

Eliza Mik

The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts (CUECIC or Convention) was adopted on 23 November 2005. Its essential objective is to establish uniform rules intended to “remove obstacles to the use of electronic communications in international contracts, including obstacles that might result from the operation of existing international trade law instruments, with a view to enhancing legal certainty and commercial predictability.” The Convention relies on the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Commerce (MLEC), which constitutes an e-commerce flagship project dating back to 1995. It also resembles UNCITRAL’s Convention …

Learning Within And Across Projects: A Comparison Of Frames, Marc Antoni, Andrew J. Sense

Andrew Sense

In a world of global markets and fast changing competitive environments organizations need to embrace flexibility and adaptability in response to these environmental challenges. One organizational response to these conditions is that the classical functional structures of organizations are now more and more complemented by temporal organizations or projects. Projects are used to accomplish a diverse and often complex set of organizational goals or changes that would otherwise be less obtainable by the organization, or, that would overstrain the ability of the permanent organization to achieve successful outcomes. The diverse raft of projects that organizations do pursue can comprise projects …

Intra Project Learning: Are The Right Questions Being Asked?, Andrew J. Sense

Andrew Sense

This paper will propose and describe, a number of interdependent dimensions that form a 'learning architecture' for intra project learning.

The proposition which underpins this paper, is that members of project teams managing innovation projects within manufacturing operations, do not proactively recognise & 'engage a personal or group 'learning focus" within the management of their project activities. As such, they do not establish systems, processes or mechanisms to actively facilitate and optimise their learning within the project management activity. Consequently, they may also miss the opportunity to incorporate the available learning into the next phase of a project. As a …

To Segment Or Not To Segment? An Investigation Of Segmentation Strategy Success Under Varying Market Conditions, Sara Dolnicar, R. Freitag, Melanie J. Randle

Melanie Randle

A computer simulation study is conducted to explore the interaction of alternative segmentation strategies and the competitiveness of the market environment, a goal that can neither be tackled by purely analytic approaches as there is neither sufficient and undistorted real market data available to deduct findings in an empirical manner. The fundamental idea of the simulation is to increase competition in the artificial marketplace and to study the influence of segmentation strategy and varying market conditions on organisational success. Success/failure is measured using two performance criteria: number of units sold and survival of organisations over 36 periods of time. Three …

The International Volunteering Market: Market Segments And Competitive Relations, Sara Dolnicar, Melanie J. Randle

Melanie Randle

The number of nonprofit and social agencies relying on the help of volunteers has grown enormously in recent decades. This has lead to increased competition between these organisations for the limited resources available, and the growing adoption of what have traditionally been considered ‘commercial’ business techniques such as marketing. There have been calls for greater and more sophisticated use of ‘tried and tested’ marketing concepts such as competition, segmentation, and positioning to help volunteering organisations manage this pressure effectively. This study shines the spotlight on individuals who volunteer for multiple types of organisations in an effort to determine which organisations …

Fighting For Volunteers’ Time: Competition In The International Volunteering Industry, Sara Dolnicar, Melanie J. Randle

Melanie Randle

Despite increased competitive pressures in the volunteering industry, the structure of competition within this non-profit sector has not been examined in the past. This study uses selected respondents from the 1999-2002 World Values Survey who have previously volunteered for multiple organisations. Based on the patterns of organisations that volunteers donated their time for, competition between volunteering organisations with different missions was analysed, resulting in five dimensions of volunteering missions within which volunteering organisations appear to be competing: altruistic, leisure, political, church, and other missions. The altruistic mission groups is the broadest and includes a wide variety of volunteering goals, whereas …

Cultural Perceptions Of Volunteering: Attracting Volunteers In An Increasingly Multicultural Society, Sara Dolnicar, Melanie J. Randle

Melanie Randle

Contributing 42 billion dollars to the Australian economy annually, volunteering has become an industry of major importance. The increasingly multicultural nature of Australia has presented new challenges for nonprofit marketers in terms of designing recruitment strategies that appeal to the extremely heterogeneous cultural groups that make up our society. While various studies have focused on the application of marketing techniques to the nonprofit sector, there has been a lack of research looking specifically at the nonprofit organisations competing within a particular marketplace, and whether the perceptions and image of these competitors differs between cultural groups. This empirical study seeks to …

Environmental Volunteers: Are They Driven By Altruism And A Strong Feeling Of Regional Identity?, Melanie J. Randle, Sara Dolnicar

Melanie Randle

The significant growth of the nonprofit sector in Australia has lead to increased competition between organisations in attracting and retaining volunteers. Nonprofit managers are under increasing pressure to adopt commercial marketing techniques in order to achieve volunteer targets, and are recognising the need for detailed market information in order to develop customised and targeted marketing strategies. Environmental organisations within Australia lack information in relation to the particular segment of the market which is most likely to volunteer for their type of cause. This study addresses this issue by investigating whether environmental volunteers display unique characteristics, such as strong levels of …

Who Donates Time To The Benefit Of The Environment And Animal Rights? Profiling Volunteers From An International Perspective, Melanie J. Randle, Sara Dolnicar

Melanie Randle

Despite increased competitive pressures in the volunteering industry, there remains a lack of studies which segment the volunteering market with the aim of gaining deeper insight into the characteristics of different groups of volunteers. This study addresses this issue by using data from the 1999-2002 World Values Survey, specifically investigating those individuals who volunteer for Environmental and Animal Rights (EAR) causes. Differences are found between (i) EAR volunteer and individuals who do not volunteer for any cause, and (ii) EAR volunteers and individuals who volunteer for causes other than the environment and animal rights. This information is useful for managers …

Rhetorics Of Division: Miners' Narrative Sense Of 'Self' And 'Other' During Performance Appraisal At An Underground Coalmine, James Reveley, Peter Mclean

James Reveley

Underground coal mining has long been perceived - both by the public and the people who do the work - as a unique occupation. Since Orwell's day, mining has been reshaped by the introduction of mechanised coal extraction and the ongoing incorporation of this occupation into large organisations within multinational corporations. To date, neither development has alleviated the perennial personnel problem in the mines - how to control the activities of people who work underground, far from the gaze of managers.

The Distribution Of Research Performance Across Australian Universities, 1992-2003, And Its Implications For Higher Education Funding Models, Simon Ville, A. Valadkhani, M. O'Brien

Martin O'Brien

We contribute to the debate on research performance by comparing the distribution of research inputs and outputs across Australian universities during 1992-2003. We have calculated annual Gini coefficients for various performance measures and Lorenz curves for the final year of the study. Various findings are evident. Research-input measures have remained relatively unevenly distributed across universities. Output measures were more evenly distributed and this exhibited a gradual and rather consistent decline through time, supporting the view that the research output is being generated gradually more equally across Australia’s universities. Excluding the “Group of Eight” (Go8) universities, results in a more even …

Distinguished Fellow Of The Economic Society Of Australia, 2008: Alan Woodland, Edgar J. Wilson

Edgar Wilson

This citation acknowledges Professor Alan Woodland as an eminent Australian economist and surveys his exceptional international record of scholarship and research with a selection of his insightful contributions to the understanding of the complex issues of international trade, taxation and welfare. These issues are at the forefront of our nation's economic priorities and it is appropriate that we formally recognise his outstanding contributions to the discipline study of economics with the award of Distinguished Fellow of the Economic Society of Australia.

Trade-Gdp Nexus In Iran: An Application Of The Autoregressive Distributed Lag (Ardl) Model, Mosayeb Pahlavani, E. Wilson, A. C. Worthington

Edgar Wilson

This paper employs annual time series data on Iranian exports, imports and economic growth from 1960 to 2003. Procedures are used to endogenously identify structural breaks in these macroeconomic series and then to incorporate these breaks in unit root tests. An initial finding is that the endogenously determined structural breaks coincide with important phenomena in the Iranian economy, including the Islamic revolution in 1978 and the start of the Iran-Iraq war in 1980. The error correction version of the autoregressive distributed lag procedure is then employed to specify the short and long-term determinants of economic growth in the Iranian economy …

A Disciplinary Analysis Of The Contribution Of Academic Staff To Phd Completions In Australian Universities, Abbas Valadkhani, Simon Ville

Simon Ville

This paper identifies the major areas of research strengths and concentration across all Australian universities, as demonstrated by the number of PhDs and academic staff members (S) in ten broad fields of education using the average audited data (2001-2003). The ratio of PhD completions to S is then presented to provide a tentative basis for benchmarking and productivity analysis. Inter alia, we found a very interesting relationship between the number of PhD graduates (as the dependent variable) and S using a fixed-effect model with both discipline-specific slope and intercept coefficients. The results provide policy implications for individual universities and government.

Institution Building And Organizational Diversity: Evidence From Australian Woolbrokers’ Associations, 1890‐1939, David Merrett, Simon Ville

Simon Ville

Between 1890 and 1914 Australia became the world’s largest market for wool. Wresting this title from London required local brokers to create an ordered market with a central auction room, a uniform sale contract and standard arbitration procedure across a number of separate selling centres. This paper explores the various governance structures created by the Associations in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney, to bind co‐operative behaviours. We argue that the dual objects of the Associations, adherence to a uniform price and the operation of a central auction, provided different levels of incentives to firms to co‐operate in each centre. Firms took …

"Making Connections": Insights Into Relationship Marketing From The Australasian Stock And Station Agent Industry, Simon Ville

Simon Ville

Relationship marketing has received little attention from business historians who have favored the study of branding, associational advertising, market research, and the role of marketing agencies, particularly in relation to modern consumer manufacturing. Although the term relationship marketing is of recent origin, we analyze its practice under a different guise, "connections", over several centuries: we draw on the extensive archival evidence of a rural business services industry in Australia and New Zealand. Relationship marketing's emphasis upon close and enduring individual customer relationships mitigated uncertainty of performance and behaviour, on both sides of the transaction, created by a long and geographically …