A holistic human ecology approach to sustainable agricultural development

This article discusses the possibility of sustainable agricultural development and how it could be put into effect. It is argued that sustainable development must be implemented in accordance with holistic and autonomous principles, and that it must comply with the laws of the natural and sociocultural environment in which it is embedded. Two examples of the holistic human ecology paradigm are given, in the contexts of sustainable agrarian and developmental policy.     

Pollution Externalities in a Model of Endogenous Fertility and Growth

An endogenous growth model with human capital formation, pollution caused by production of consumption goods, and endogenous fertility decisions made by altruistic agents with infinite horizons is presented. Consequences for optimal policy of modelling fertility as an explicit decision variable are examined. Because ordinary lump-sum transfers to individuals are no longer neutral, either revenue from a pollution tax must be redistributed to dynasties (working as an implicit tax on child births), or lump-sum transfers must be supplemented with an explicit fertility tax. Alternatively, the government can avoid distortions of the fertility decisions by maintaining an appropriate public debt. When abatement is highly productive, it can be optimal to subsidize fertility in order to increase total production.     

人力资源价值影响因素的实证分析

知识经济时代的来临,人的因素越来越成为企业实现自身战略目标的关键。在人力资源的开发、利用和管理过程中,首先要解决的是人力资源价值评估问题,而人力资源的价值评估问题的解决必须建立在对人力资源价值影响因素分析的基础上。本文通过问卷调查方式获得研究所需数据,对其进行实证分析,提出影响人力资源价值的六大因子分别是:劳动者的基本素质因子、组织管理能力因子、适应环境因子、工作态度因子、生理因子和工资收入因子。     

马斯洛人性理论的再认识

马斯洛倾其毕生精力为人本主义心理学奠定的人性理论基础,内容十分丰富,涉及的问题十分庞杂,是对人性问题的十分广泛和比较深入的研究与探索。我国20世纪80年代开始关注、介绍、研究马斯洛的理论,一度出现"马斯洛热"。十七大把人的问题提到了一个新的理论和实践的发展高度,人的全面发展和社会的全面进步紧密结合在一起,在新的时代背景下,有必要对马斯洛的人性理论进行再认识,运用马克思主义立场、观点和方法,客观地、实事求是地评价马斯洛的人性论,对准确理解马斯洛人性理论的内涵,整体把握马斯洛人性理论的内容,充分估计马斯洛人性理论的理论意义和应用价值具有十分重要的意义。     

Racial Differences in the Demand for Life Insurance

The objective of this article is to measure racial differences in the proportion of human capital that households protect with life insurance. Using the 2004 Survey of Consumer Finances data, racial differences in two stages of the process are tested, where it is assumed that households must decide both whether or not to purchase life insurance and how much of their human capital to insure (if they decide to purchase). Among married and cohabitating households, we find that, controlling for demographics and other factors, there is little difference in life insurance ownership between black and white households but that white households insure a larger proportion of their human capital than black households.     

Needed: a new system of intellectual property rights

The world's current system of intellectual property rights has in recent years become unworkable and ineffective. Designed more than 100 years ago to meet the needs of an industrial era, it is inadequate to handle the ownership and distribution of intellectual property generated by the brainpower industries that have come to dominate the world's economy. The prevailing wisdom is that minor tweaking can remedy the problem. But MIT economist Lester Thurow challenges such thinking and calls instead for a new system--one redesigned from the ground up. In making his case for why the old system doesn't work anymore, Thurow lays out the challenges the new system must meet. It must offer incentives to inventors that are strong enough to offset the decline in publicly funded research. At the same time, it must protect the public interest by keeping some intellectual property--basic scientific knowledge, for example--in the public domain. The new system must be flexible enough to deal with the fact that new technologies have created new potential forms of intellectual property rights (Can pieces of a human being be patented?) and have made old rights unenforceable (When books can be downloaded from an electronic library, what does a copyright mean?). And in an increasingly global economy, a new system must meet the needs of both "catch-up" states and "keep-ahead" states. A system that ignores the lesson of history--that every country that has caught up has done so by copying--will be an unenforceable one.     

物本经济发展观与人本经济发展观

两类经济发展观不是从真理观、人类利益统一性或自然观的角度的区分,而是从价值观、人类利益对立性或社会观的角度的区分.物本经济发展观以物类增值为本,主张经济个人主义和片面的人类幸福,将人类仅仅当作手段.人本经济发展观以人类增值为本,主张经济人类主义和全面的人类幸福,将人类当作目的.两类经济发展观在经济发展的方向、方针、方式和方法上存在基本区别,同时在理论渊源和理论内容上存在基本联系,因此,在实行人本经济发展观时,既要划清其与物本经济发展观的界限,又要扬弃物本经济发展观.在现代,已经出现人本经济发展观逐步取代物本经济发展观的基本趋势,同时人本经济发展观自身也应不断完善.     

The future of morality

Moral criticism of human institutions is frequent : the acceptance of social constraints by the free individual is rare. This moral inversion is inconsistent with the survival of an increasingly interdependent society. Statements of human rights must be replaced by statements of human responsibility if we are to make the world viable.     

Manage your human sigma

If sales and service organizations are to improve, they must learn to measure and manage the quality of the employee-customer encounter. Quality improvement methodologies such as Six Sigma are extremely useful in manufacturing contexts, but they're less useful when it comes to human interactions. To address this problem, the authors have developed a quality improvement approach they refer to as Human Sigma. It weaves together a consistent method for assessing the employee-customer encounter and a disciplined process for managing and improving it. There are several core principles for measuring and managing the employee-customer encounter: It's important not to think like an economist or an engineer when assessing interactions because emotions inform both sides' judgments and behavior. The employee-customer encounter must be measured and managed locally, because there are enormous variations in quality at the work-group and individual levels. And to improve the quality of the employee-customer interaction, organizations must conduct both short-term, transactional interventions and long-term, transformational ones. Employee engagement and customer engagement are intimately connected--and, taken together, they have an outsized effect on financial performance. They therefore need to be managed holistically. That is, the responsibility for measuring and monitoring the health of employee-customer relationships must reside within a single organizational structure, with an executive champion who has the authority to initiate and manage change. Nevertheless, the local manager remains the single most important factor in local group performance. A local manager whose work group shows suboptimal performance should be encouraged to conduct interventions, such as targeted training, performance reviews, action learning, and individual coaching.     

Reflections on the Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Accounting Project

The purpose of the interdisciplinary perspectives on accounting (IPA) project is to have an impact on the theory and practice of accounting as well as the surrounding social processes. The following discussion outlines the birth and maturation of the contemporary IPA project and concludes that the undertaking is divided along methodological, philosophical, and ideological lines. In addressing these issues, we propose to clarify and differentiate the nature and purpose of the contemporary IPA and critical accounting projects. The interdisciplinary work is directed generally toward a more complete understanding of accounting theory and practice and of the broader social institution of accountancy. The purpose of interdisciplinary studies is to heighten the awareness of those parties who are implicated in its enactment. The critical accounting project is viewed as a subset of the interdisciplinary project and provides a focus for those who wish to devise an approach that consciously privileges the linkage of knowledge to the pursuit of a radical political process. Whatever labels are employed, it must be recognized that though participants in the interdisciplinary project might disagree as to its source, intensity, and influence, the totalizing influence of hegemonic power is present in society and the world. This is so whether one classifies that world as modern or postmodern, or whether we see change as possible on a global level or only within some local sphere; issues of human rights, human dignity, and the human condition must be of central concern. Regardless of the interdisciplinary origin or grounding, we must continually affirm a commitment to a more socially responsible institution of accountancy. In our view, the critical accounting project provides a focus for those who wish to devise an approach to accounting studies that consciously privileges the realization of the philosophy of praxis. Those who choose the critical accounting project must recognize, however, that without an ever expanding interdisciplinary horizon, the critical project is likely to degenerate either into tyranny or quietism.     

The psychodynamics of meaning and action for a sustainable future

Environmental policy and social research tends to neglect the inner, experiential dimensions of human life. Yet, the ways in which individuals seek to achieve psychological and emotional well-being in their lives is inevitably expressed in behaviour that impacts on ecological (and social) processes.The yearning for this ‘inner human sustainability’ is psychologically rooted and subjectively experienced. Beliefs and worldviews about how best to satisfy it are culturally (i.e. inter-subjectively and collectively) constructed and expressed through behaviour that, in turn, supports or undermines the external ecological and social world. Consumerism and its associated behaviours are inherently unsustainable socio-ecologically and psychologically. Through a psychodynamic theory of human experience, meaning and behaviour, the paper explains why any policy, if it is to be effective in the long-term, must be attentive to psychological, experiential and cultural dimensions of human beings and beliefs about how needs and wants will be satisfied. It also argues that long-term societal and cultural transformation is only possible when individuals take responsibility for their own development, transformation and engagement in the larger social and ecological complex on which they depend. Policy-making, research and education are themselves cultural activities that seek to respond appropriately to changes in the external world within the constraints of powerful cultural (collective) and psychological (individual) values and priorities. A systemic approach to sustainable development requires consideration of the mutual dependence between eco-social and psycho-cultural realities.     

Is it inevitable that evolution self-destruct?

To get an idea of where humanity is headed, we must look at the causes of change—the human brain and the inherent rules of group behavior. Our brain evolved to meet the needs of hunting-gathering societies, not the complex civilization we have developed. Today we are ill-suited for the challenges we face, and those who hold power too often lack the mind and integrity needed to use it wisely. Organizations by their very nature often act irrationally. A glance into the future shows where this may lead. The well-to-do shield themselves from deteriorating conditions while the poor suffer. A major catastrophe in a wealthy country that cannot be ignored eventually awakes the affluent to the downward path. They mobilize at last, but it is too late. Forces are in motion that cannot be stopped. Conditions including global warming, mass starvation, and political instability continue to worsen. As global warming has made all but the extreme northern and southern hemispheres uninhabitable, the remaining diminished populations there lose contact with each other. Within each group, aggressive individuals fight to the last person over what is left rather than cooperate to solve problems. Is it inevitable that evolution must over time self-destruct?     

Seven surprises for new CEOs

As a newly minted CEO, you may think you finally have the power to set strategy, the authority to make things happen, and full access to the finer points of your business. But if you expect the job to be as simple as that, you're in for an awakening. Even though you bear full responsibility for your company's well-being, you are a few steps removed from many of the factors that drive results. You have more power than anybody else in the corporation, but you need to use it with extreme caution. In their workshops for new CEOs, held at Harvard Business School in Boston, the authors have discovered that nothing--not even running a large business within the company--fully prepares a person to be the chief executive. The seven most common surprises are: You can't run the company. Giving orders is very costly. It is hard to know what is really going on. You are always sending a message. You are not the boss. Pleasing shareholders is not the goal. You are still only human. These surprises carry some important and subtle lessons. First, you must learn to manage organizational context rather than focus on daily operations. Second, you must recognize that your position does not confer the right to lead, nor does it guarantee the loyalty of the organization. Finally, you must remember that you are subject to a host of limitations, even though others might treat you as omnipotent. How well and how quickly you understand, accept, and confront the seven surprises will have a lot to do with your success or failure as a CEO.     

Bringing people (back) into risk analysis

Abstract

This paper explores the different ways in which people (i.e. human factors) have been incorporated in extant studies of risk. A preliminary scan of the literature shows that people are not just passive maleficiaries of risk but are also active participants in its inception. People are actors whose biases and behaviors give rise to risk and make an impact on both the degree of its likelihood and the severity of its consequences. Because people themselves undertake risk analysis (either as experts and/or stakeholders), the risk analysis process itself is subject to biases and human error. Therefore, it is argued that human factors must be explicitly brought into risk conceptualization, analysis, and theory development in order to enrich and extend the frontiers of the field. Scholarly contributions by members of the Society for Risk Analysis Australia and New Zealand (SRA-ANZ) investigating the challenges and complexities of incorporating people in risk analysis are introduced in this issue.     

加入WTO后国有企业的人才竞争策略

我国的企业在加入WTO后，面临众多的竞争，但归根到底是人才的竞争。我们必须未雨绸缪，在人力资源的开发和使用上，做好应战的准备，迎接我国加入WTO的新挑战。本文首先分析了人才竞争的趋势和特点，接着剖视了国有企业在人才竞争中面临的困境，最后提出了入世后人才竞争的对策措施，对国有企业具有一定的预警和借鉴意义。     

从当前管理的误区看我国商业银行人力资源管理的改革

在我国商业银行当前的经营管理中 ,存在着过度强调企业盈利、经营效率和报酬量化这三方面的误区。面对入世后国内金融市场的激烈竞争局面 ,我国商业银行必须走出这三个误区才能获得长久的竞争力。因为人才是企业的根本 ,是企业一切创造力的源泉。     

论促进经济可持续发展的税收调控机制

可持续发展战略的提出虽然有了较长一段时期,但税收在可持续发展中的功能并没有引起人们足够重视。在可持续发展战略中,税收政策应该发挥其应有的重要作用。有必要调整并完善现有税收制度政策,以调节和影响市场主体的行为,调动各经济主体的积极性,激励他们走可持续发展的道路。     

Public reception of scientific uncertainty in the endocrine disrupter controversy: the case of male fertility

Scientific controversies are associated with significant uncertainty. Despite this uncertainty, available knowledge must be communicated to the public, who are potentially at risk. There are contradictions in the existing literature about the value of communicating uncertainty associated with science. Some scientists and decision-makers believe that communicating uncertainty to the public will produce panic and confusion, and will discredit science. Others believe that uncertainty must be communicated to increase trust in science. We tested reactions to communication about uncertainty related to the controversial link between exposure to endocrine disrupters and a decline in human male fertility. Our empirical setup used focus groups and qualitative analysis of participants’ perceived uncertainty and their emotions. The results show that laypeople raise more and different uncertainties than those communicated by researchers. Moreover, laypeople did not react to uncertainty ‘globally;’ they had different reactions to the different sources of uncertainty. Uncertainty did not elicit panic in this case study. Rather, uncertainty was reassuring, except when it was associated with an inability to precisely identify and, therefore, control the cause of male reproductive disorders. We discuss the emotions expressed and their relationships with communication about scientific uncertainty (powerlessness, guilt, outrage, etc.). We also note that feelings of confusion increase after uncertainty has been communicated.     

The globalization of the rule of law and human rights

The third millenium will be a defining period for the future of human rights worldwide. In the second millenium, rudimentary concepts of human rights emerged, evolved, expanded and ultimately were woven into an intricate and detailed web of rights that has been globally enunciated, but not yet universally recognized and enforced. Since World War II, developments have occurred at an escalating pace. The UN and the World Court have been established. Criminal tribunals have been created, and regional courts and regional security organizations have been installed. There is growing recognition that rulers of nations must be subject to civil and criminal jurisdiction of international law. At the close of the second millenium we are witnessing the first ever indictment of a sitting ruler for violations of international criminal law. Despite important progress, many obstacles must be overcome before the rule of law will prevail globally.