Accounting for the Business of Suffering: A Study of the Antebellum Richmond, Virginia, Slave Trade

When the Congress barred the importation of slaves into the United States in 1808, it left the internal slave trade intact. The trade took on a new importance as the slave states of the Old South saw their agricultural economies shift to a point that holding large numbers of slaves became too expensive. During this time, the large agricultural concerns shifted to the New South, where cotton and sugar plantations needed the cheap labour provided by the institution of slavery. As this transition intensified, Richmond, Virginia, became a central slave market that facilitated the interstate slave trade as Old South planters chose the course of selling slaves as a valuable commodity rather than the course of manumission. The records of two businesses—Dickinson & Hill and Hector Davis & Company—which plied the slave trade in the Richmond market, have survived into the twenty-first century. These records revealed a primitive, yet sophisticated, process to account for the consignment, purchase, and sales of human merchandise in this haunting story of the 'business of suffering'.     

Globalization and trade union strategy: industrial restructuring and human resource management in the international civil aviation industry

For trade unions, the central problematic of globalization is the growing disparity between the mobility of capital and labour. The ability of capital to operate on a trans-national basis is widely perceived to have precipitated a process of cost cutting as international companies seek to cut workers' remuneration and other conditions of employment. However, systematic empirical evidence on the impact of globalization on human resource management is hard to find, as is any assessment of the differential impact of globalization on different occupational groups or the response of trade unions to any deterioration in their members' terms and conditions of employment. Focusing on the international civil aviation industry, we examine the effects of globalization on human resource management and the national and international strategies developed by organized labour in response. Although the evidence suggests that there is indeed a concerted effort by major airlines to cut costs, trade unions have been able to retard the pace of change and effectively defend the interests of some occupational groups. Moreover, the future course of globalization will be contested through new international strategies and repertoires of collective action developed by the trade union movement.     

Taking its toll: The private financing of roads in Spain

The article analyses the cost of using private finance to build, finance and maintain toll roads in Spain. Spain is the primary exponent of private finance for roads in Europe, where the case rested on the lack of public finance, in contrast to the UK that has stressed value for money. The evidence shows that more than half of the toll charge represents the cost of finance; the cost of private finance is nearly double the cost of public finance; and financing is underpinned by various forms of public support creating risks for the taxpayers.     

项目挣值的绩效差异分析方法缺陷与解决方案

随着各种项目管理体制和方法的全面转型,我国需要借鉴和运用国际通行的项目挣值管理(EVM)绩效评估方法。然而,现有EVM绩效评估方法中存在着将实际多个项目要素影响简化为项目成本和进度两要素造成的绩效评估失真和信息缺失的实际问题与理论缺陷。本文将全面讨论现有的EVM方法,并给出有关解决方案及实务验证。     

高职汽车技术服务与营销专业课程整合研究

构建适合汽车技术服务与营销专业的课程体系,是高职院校专业建设的核心任务。我们通过对汽车服专业人才培养定位及岗位能力的分析,讨论了课程设置需要处理好的几个关系,进而对汽车技术服务与营销专业课程进行优化整合。     

Making tax and social security decisions: lean and deskilling in the UK Civil Service

Lean working has had a significant impact on the work skills of civil servants. This study examines the impact of lean specifically focusing on ‘decision‐makers’, those civil servants engaged in deciding tax and social security claims. Using qualitative data from trade union members and stewards in two major government departments, this study found significant evidence of deskilling often in the face of dealing with potentially complex legal and factual issues. Using Mashaw's framework of administrative justice, the article argues that management's use of lean was evidence of an accelerated shift to a managerial model of administering tax and benefits where the administrative processes of decision‐making become paramount at the expense of the quality of the decisions made.     

A study on X party material flow: the theory and applications

A thorough study of X party material flow (XPMF), its theory and its applications is conducted in this research. The X material flow concept is an extension of the material flow (MF) theory. To further elucidate that XPMF is one type of MF service model with PMF (party, material, flow) fractal structure and the characteristics of XPMF, we develop the three-pyramid synergetic operational model of XPMF. Through the analysis of several cases, we believe that OIR (Objective relational grade, Information sharing grade, and Resource complementary grade) is the set of order parameters that control and determine the formation of XPMF new structure and its degree of being ordered. Therefore it reveals the mechanism of XPMF formation and evolution. We also provide the principles and the methods for XPMF control.     

RESPONDING TO DISRUPTIONS IN THE SUPPLY NETWORK‐FROM DORMANT TO ACTION

Managing risks in supply networks is a complex task; more so in those supply networks where the core competence lies in dealing with natural disasters, complex emergencies, and large‐scale attacks—namely those of humanitarian, and military organizations where the price of failure can be counted in terms of the loss of life rather than, simply, reduced profits. This conceptual article examines the capabilities of these supply networks to manage such disruptions, based on their resource configuration in a dormant preparation state. The article concludes by presenting how different types of supply networks can manage large‐scale disruptions.     

德国大学法律教育的特点及其借鉴意义——以民法教学为例

德国大学的民法教育,注重培养学生的实践操作能力,在课程设置、课程类型、教学方式、教材编撰等方面均以此为中心任务。我国大学民法教育中应当细化民商法课程的设置,重视案例分析和研讨式教学方法的开展,在教学管理上宽严相济,以培养学生主动学习和解决实际问题的能力,养成初步的学术研究规范。     

America's Engagement in Iraq: Insights and implications for public management research

Abstract

There are lessons to be learned in the matter of public management in Iraq and Afghanistan, especially in the importance of the management cultures in which decisions are made. This review is of four books, by different authors, sharing their journalist approach. Four shared themes emerge from these works: the importance of training, organizational culture, strategy, and governance. The authors develop an awareness of the inter-connectivity of the leadership and management cultures of the military and civilians, with significant implications for future public management research. Each of the four books in this review offers contributions that extend the knowledge and practice of public management and public policy, providing hard-learned lessons that can be cross walked into teaching, practice, and research.