Volunteer tourists in the field: A question of balance?

This paper is based on a study of volunteering at a children’s refuge in Mexico. This study explored the relationship between volunteers, their volunteering experiences and the behaviour that resulted. The study findings revealed volunteers were provided with the opportunity to make a positive contribution to the every-day lives of the children at the children’s home. However the findings also demonstrated that the volunteering experience consisted of much more than just the work duties carried out there, as volunteers also undertook tourist activities. Living in shared accommodation in walking distance from the busy tourist resort of Puerto Vallarta, the volunteers were faced with the difficult task of balancing commitment to their work duties at the children’s home with the lure of more hedonistic pursuits. This balancing act raises questions about the management of volunteer tourists.     

Insurers' Demutualization Decisions

ABSTRACT: Several explanations of why mutual insurers choose to demutualize their businesses are examined with a recent survey of mutual insurers. This study adds to the literature by surveying mutual insurers' executives on those factors that would lead them to demutualize their companies. Both univariate and multivariate techniques are applied to analyze those responses. Demutualization is most strongly influenced by access to capital markets, increased organizational flexibility, and the chance for company officers to increase their pay, as prior literature has suggested.     

A Case Study of the Grey Oaks Community and Club: Creation of a High-Performance Culture Through the Innovative Use of a Data-Driven Business Plan

ABSTRACT

Grey Oaks, a premier country club and gated residential community established in Naples, Florida, developed and used a collaborative and highly feedback-driven system to build adaptive capacity and foster proactive change. Special attention has been given to the unique use and refinement of its business plan and planning process through the feedback management received from club members. This highly adaptive business plan helped Grey Oaks to endure the economic downturn that began in 2008, and the company’s ability to thrive in the midst of economic instability has demonstrated the effectiveness of the plan as a model capable of sustaining the cultural and financial health of the club and community. The Grey Oaks planning model has been an innovation in its industry, and other organizations can greatly benefit by studying the implementation and utilization of this evidence-driven model.     

The Role of Attitudes and Objectives in Farmer Decision Making: Business and Environmentally-Oriented Behaviour in Scotland

Despite considerable effort to understand and represent decision making by farmers, there has been little attempt to integrate socio-economic, psychological and farming variables within a comprehensive framework. This paper attempts to do this in the context of two types of farming behaviour - business and environmental -for a sample of over 200 Scottish farmers. Using variables covering their attitudes, objectives and behaviours relevant to many aspects of farming, we proposed mediating variables models of business-oriented and environmentally-oriented farming behaviours. Structural equation modelling was used to test the adequacy of the proposed models. The results of the study emphasise the importance of psychological factors in the decision making of farmers.     

Towards a national educational planning model

The reflections of this paper are based upon some of the experiences of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development since work was started on educational planning in the late 1950's. It attempts to show how this work has led almost inevitably to the adoption of a “systems approach” to educational planning over a large part of the O.E.C.D. programme. The paper is confined to educational planning activities in which the O.E.C.D. has had some involvement and deals with only a part of those activities—national educational planning within the context of economic and social development.     

Rainwater harvesting in the UK: Socio-technical theory and practice

There is currently a window of opportunity in the UK, with respect to promoting sustainable water management (SWM). Periods of alternating drought and flooding have brought water management issues to the fore of UK media coverage and policy development. Unchallenged reliance on the historic legacy of piped infrastructure is declining, as its resilience and adaptability in the face of climate change become increasingly questioned. Despite its prevalence in other countries and a recent surge in sales, rainwater harvesting (RWH) has yet to transition from niche to mainstream in the UK. This paper provides an overview of the development of a strategic framework for enabling RWH to transition from novel to mainstream, informed by a number of evidence bases and devised using insight gained through the application of a number of theories. Identified strategic areas for action include (i) Technical Relevance (product development); (ii) Social Receptivity (capacity building) and (ii) Institutional Commitment (support services).     

Evaluating the employability paradox: When does organizational investment in human capital pay off?

Abstract

The paper explores the notion of the employability paradox which notes that while organizations investing in the career and competency development of their workforce can benefit from higher performance, they also risk losing more employable staff to competitors. Building on contributions from social exchange theory and signalling theory, we develop a model exploring the circumstances under which investment in career development benefits employees and organizations. We test our model in a longitudinal study following graduates entering the labour market. Our results show that when organizations signal that they care about employees by investing in their career development and individuals are receptive to such signals and proactively seek to manage their careers, investment in career development has a positive impact on organizational commitment and intention to stay with one’s employer. Our findings indicate that the idea of the employability paradox is simplistic and lacks theoretical and empirical support.     

SPORADIC, FLUID AND CONSTRICTED PROCESSES: THREE TYPES OF STRATEGIC DECISION MAKING IN ORGANIZATIONS[1]

Using 136 cases of strategic decision-making described by a number of variables drawn from the literature, three distinct types of decision-making processes are found. These are termed sporadic, fluid and constricted processes. They are parsimonious characterizations of decision-making processes which, given the variety of the 30 organizations from which the cases are drawn, should be generalizable to a wide range of contexts.     

MANAGING MARKETS: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE MAKE-BUY DECISION

The concept of a managed market is developed and is seen as especially suitable for complex transactions as an alternative to internal hierarchical organization. It is argued that a number of augmenting processes, namely trust, routinization and mutual adjustment, usually associated with internal organization, can be used to good effect in a market. Hence the paper develops an approach to make-buy decisions through a transactions cost model and exemplifies the augmenting processes in three case studies from branches of the engineering industry.