The value of project management to organizations in Canada and Germany,or do values add value? Five case studies

Five case studies have been conducted: four in Canada and one in Germany. The authors of this article were particularly interested in understanding the value of values and meaning in the context of project management implementation and project environments. The article first summarizes the authors' particular approach. It then discusses the five case studies and their findings. These findings will be grouped around the concepts of value of project management and meaningful work. In conclusion, the findings of this study will be summarized across all five case studies and based on a comparative content analysis.     

Paradigm,paradox, paralysis: An epistemic process

The potential of the transformative capacity of education requires critique of a dominant paradigm, in order to apprehend the unconscious acceptance of capital markets as solutions to societies’ woes. We engaged with media texts as practicum which advocated carbon markets to mitigate carbon pollution: a contemporary issues in society. We found that although we critique the dominant paradigms upheld by the media texts which we chose, our engagement had the potential to reinforce the status quo. Once this paradox is evident, it precipitates a paralysis of the educative process. However, this is not an end state but the struggle to overcome the paralysis mobilises a reconsideration of the paradigm and opens new possibilities. We argue that the collision of the concepts of paradigm, paradox and paralysis demonstrates an epistemic process which has emancipatory possibilities.     

HR practices and commitment to change: an employee‐level analysis

This article explores the relationship between HR practices and commitment to change in three health service organisations in Ireland. The research focuses on employee views of HR practices and resulting employee‐level consequences including commitment to change, perceptions of the industrial relations climate and the psychological contract, and work–life balance. The findings indicate that the HR practices valued by employees, and which are related to a range of employee‐related consequences, are very different from the lists of sophisticated HR practices that appear in the high performance literature. The research suggests that organisations need to ensure that attention is still paid to the basics of the employment relationship and that these are not lost in the rush to introduce more sophisticated approaches to managing employees.     

Estimating demand with distance functions: Parameterization in the primal and dual

Our purpose is to investigate the ability of different parametric forms to ‘correctly’ estimate consumer demands based on distance functions using Monte Carlo methods. Our approach combines economic theory, econometrics and quadratic approximation. We begin by deriving parameterizations for transformed quadratic functions which are linear in parameters and characterized by either homogeneity or which satisfy the translation property. Homogeneity is typical of Shephard distance functions and expenditure functions, whereas translation is characteristic of benefit/shortage or directional distance functions. The functional forms which satisfy these conditions and include both first- and second-order terms are the translog and quadratic forms, respectively. We then derive a primal characterization which is homogeneous and parameterized as translog and a dual model which satisfies the translation property and is specified as quadratic. We assess functional form performance by focusing on empirical violations of the regularity conditions. Our analysis corroborates results from earlier Monte Carlo studies on the production side suggesting that the quadratic form more closely approximates the ‘true’ technology or in our context consumer preferences than the translog.     

The Communication of Corporate Social Responsibility: United States and European Union Multinational Corporations

This study explores corporate social responsibility (CSR) by conducting a cross-cultural analysis of communication of CSR activities in a total of 16 U.S. and European corporations. Drawing on previous research contrasting two major approaches to CSR initiatives, it was proposed that U.S. companies would tend to communicate about and justify CSR using economic or bottom-line terms and arguments whereas European companies would rely more heavily on language or theories of citizenship, corporate accountability, or moral commitment. Results supported this expectation of difference, with some modification. Specifically, results indicated that EU companies do not value sustainability to the exclusion of financial elements, but instead project sustainability commitments in addition to financial commitments. Further, U.S.-based companies focused more heavily on financial justifications whereas EU-based companies incorporated both financial and sustainability elements in justifying their CSR activities. In addition, wide variance was found in both the prevalence and use of specific CSR-related terminology. Cross-cultural distinctions in this use create implications with regard to measurability and evidence of both strategic and bottom-line impact. Directions for further research are discussed. Laura P. Hartman is a Professor of Business Ethics and Legal Studies in the Management Department in the College of Commerce at DePaul University, as Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs of the University and as Research Director of DePaul’s Institute for Business and Professional Ethics. She is also an invited professor at INSEAD (France), HEC (France), the University of Melbourne, the Université Paul Cezanne Aix Marseille III and the Grenoble Graduate School of Business. She has been published in, among other journals, Business Ethics Quarterly, Business & Society Review, Business Ethics: A European Review, and the Journal of Business Ethics. Robert S. Rubin is an Assistant Professor in the Management Department at DePaul University’s Kellstadt Graduate School of Business. He received his PhD in organizational psychology from Saint Louis University. His current research interests include transformational leadership, leader cynicism, social and emotional individual differences, and management education and development. K. Kathy Dhanda is an Associate Professor at the Department of Management at DePaul University. Her areas of research include sustainable supply chains, environmental networks, marketable permit modeling, sustainable management, and public policy.     

The erosion of repeat-purchase loyalty

A large-scale longitudinal analysis is used to study the repeat-purchase rates of brand buyers in stationary markets. The data cover the leading brands in a number of frequently purchased grocery categories in three countries. We find that, in the medium term, there is a systematic but limited loss of repeat-purchase loyalty; across nine markets, erosion (the proportionate fall in repeat-purchase loyalty) averages 15 percent in the first year for the brands studied. Erosion does not differ by weight of purchase: similar rates are found for light, medium, and heavy buyer-segments. Brand leaders are found to have a lower erosion than smaller brands.     

Faith,hope and love: doing family through consuming pilgrimage

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to explore the consumption of Lourdes, a Catholic pilgrimage site in France. Based on a three-year ethnography, our findings focus on respondents’ ‘Lourdes stories’. Discussing themes of faith, hope and love, we illustrate the importance of the family in consuming Lourdes. Family members act as influencing agents in the initial and sometimes continuous consumption of Lourdes. Our findings differ from consumer research to date in that rather than furthering discussion of family structure or furthering discussion on family identity we suggest a new focus is the actual building of intimate family bonds and relationships – the ‘doing’ of family or ‘familying’ – with the context of the Lourdes pilgrimage offering consumers a unique setting comprising faith, fun and family.     

The Relation Among Targets' R&D Activities, Acquirers' Returns, and In-Process R&D in the US

Abstract:  Using a sample of 129 mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in the US between publicly traded acquirers and targets in research and development (R&D) intensive industries over the period of 1994-2004 and a size- and industry-matched sample, we examine the relation among targets' R&D activities, the probability of acquirers' writing-off in-process R&D (IPRD), and acquirers' returns around the time of M&A announcements. We find that firms acquiring targets with higher R&D investments tend to write off some of the acquired R&D assets upon the completion of the M&As. We also find that the median cumulative abnormal return during the three days around M&A announcements for acquirers with subsequent IPRD write-offs is −2.73% while the return for acquirers without IPRD write-offs is −0.60%. This suggests that acquirers' stock returns around M&A announcements are much lower when investors expect acquirers to expense IPRD. The results are consistent with our conjecture that acquirers tend to write-off IPRD when they acquire overvalued targets. We also find that IPRD write-offs do not increase earnings or stock returns of acquirers after M&As, which is inconsistent with an earnings management hypothesis.     

Strengthening the weak link in strategic executive development: Integrating individual development and global business strategy

The global business environment of the 1990s provides both challenge and opportunity to human resource development to become an integral player in helping implement business strategy. The results of two best practice studies suggest that some leading firms such as 3M and Motorola are doing just that. At these companies current strategic business issues are the drivers of flexible and opportunistic executive development activities. Naturally occurring on-the-job experiences are consciously utilized in such a way that helping executives to develop becomes an integral part of conducting business. The implications of linking executive development to business strategy for practice and for future research are discussed. © 1995 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Staffing for end of life: challenges and opportunities

What would staffing look like if we committed to end-of-life experiences that were designed to honor the needs of the person dying, their loved ones, and the needs of the nurses and care team involved in the dying experience? When we think about the experience of death in a health care setting, it is essential we look at the needs of both patients and caregivers. Attending to the needs of patients and their families facing death, even if well defined, can be difficult to design into staffing plans and budgets in a way that would not put an organization at further financial risk. If we are going to commit to staffing practices that honor dying, in all it's dimensions and for all who are potentially impacted, we will most likely have to step outside traditional thinking to find answers.