Commentary on "The Quest for Meaning in Public Choice" by Elinor Ostrom and Vincent Ostrom

ABSTRACT . The Ostroms have created a paper that goes to the very heart of the public choice enterprise. They suggest that we should conceive of the evolution of constitutional procedures and laws in analogy with biological evolution. One of the paper's central goals is to establish the logical foundations of political order. I take this goal seriously and compare explicitly the task of explaining order in biology and politics. In the case of biology, the task of evolutionary theory has been to give an account of why there are complex arrangements of genetic material called “organisms” (including humans, giraffes, and whales) rather than just a nutrient‐rich primordial ooze with no apparent structure. For the social scientist, the task is to explain why there are rules, structure, and stability in societies.     

A Critique of International Micawberism

Britain does not have a 'deficit problem' and can sustain adove-trend economis growth with low inflation for same year to come.     

Towards A Critique of Managerialism: the Contribution of Simone Weil*

This paper seeks to make a contribution to the critical literature on management and, more particularly, to the critique of managerialism. This is achieved via a consideration of the hitherto neglected writing of Simone Weil (1909–43) on management, work and organizations. Following an introduction to this work, attention is focused on Weil's notion of oppression, and detailed consideration is given to the conceptualization of management as a form of oppression. the bulk of the paper elaborates the significance of Weil's work for the critique of contemporary forms of managerialism. In particular, the development of new forms of managerial expertise, and the phenomenon of self-management, are analysed as forms of oppression. It is suggested that Weil offers the basis of a non-relativist post-Marxist form of ethically grounded critique in the field of management studies.     

Expatriate Selection,Training and Career-Pathing: A Review and Critique

In order to delineate the current state of the art of overseas relocation programs in U.S. multinational corporations, the extant literature was reviewed in the areas of expatriate personnel selection, training and career-pathing. The implications of the study's findings for U.S. MNCs are discussed and recommendations for policy change are offered.     

Critique of p-Values

This paper generalizes the notion of p-value to obtain a system for assessing evidence in favor of an hypothesis. It is not quite a quantification in that evidence is a pair of numbers (the p-value and the p-value with null and alternative interchanged) with evidence for the alternative being claimed when the first number is small and the second is at least moderately large. Traditional significance tests present p-values as a measure of evidence against a theory. This usage is rarely called for since scientists usually wish to accept theories (for the time being) not just not reject them; they are more interested in evidence for a theory. P-values are not just good or bad for this purpose; their efficacy depends on specifics. We find that a single p-value does not measure evidence for a simple hypothesis relative to a simple alternative, but consideration of both p-values leads to a satisfactory theory. This consideration does not, in general, extend to composite hypotheses since there, best evidence calls for optimization of a bivariate objective function. But in some cases, notably one sided tests for the exponential family, the optimization can be solved, and a single p-value does provide an appealing measure of best evidence for a hypothesis. One possible extension of this theory is proposed and illustrated with a practical safety analysis problem involving the difference of two random variables.     

A Critique and A Proposed Reformulation of Strategic Human Resource Management

Ken Kamoche, who lectures in human resource management at Birmingham Business School, argues that flaws in the assumptions underlying our understanding of ‘strategy’ are encouraging an inappropriate conception of strategic human resource management (SHRM). the notion of strategy which emanates from orthodox economic theory ensures that SHRM is subservient to a dominant ‘organisational imperative’. This process is reinforced by key socio-political factors which are diminishing the significance of the ‘human’ component of SHRM. He goes on to suggest how SHRM might be reconstituted to be a more useful concept     

基于BOP战略的跨部门伙伴关系构建的案例研究

基于资源构建视角,以铁骑力士集团在四川凉山州实施生猪代养模式中构建多方合作关系的过程为案例研究对象,探讨BOP战略实施中跨部门伙伴关系的构建过程。研究发现:跨部门伙伴关系的构建过程在本质上是一个资源构建的过程,包括资源筛选、资源激活、资源获取和资源整合四个阶段,每个阶段均涵盖伙伴关系建立的伙伴识别、关系发起和关系调整三个环节,且伙伴关系构建的后一个环节能够帮助完善前面环节的结果。此外,跨部门伙伴关系的构建过程是一个动态调整的过程:一方面,针对不同部门,在关系搭建的不同阶段,所搭建的关系属性有所不同;另一方面,企业在构建跨部门伙伴关系的过程中,针对同一部门所搭建的关系需要依据其关系状态动态调整,并遵循两条关系调整路径——非正式社会关系→正式社会关系→正式业务关系,以及非正式社会关系→非正式业务关系→正式业务关系。     

Homo Economicus Meets G. H. Mead: A Contribution to the Critique of Economic Theory

A bstract .   The relation between economic behavior and morality remains a live issue within economics and cognate disciplines. The standard view among economists themselves has been that while moral positions (understood broadly) may motivate our behavior, they do not capacitate or enable it. On this view the figure of Homo economicus , representing the how as against the why of our actions, must be understood as resolutely amoral. In this article, we attempt to recover the logic of this position, as well as those of critics who would modify the standard view in some way. Although also critical of the conventional economics-and-ethics divide, we argue that Homo economicus would benefit from a more fundamental rethinking, one that takes account of the theory of the self and its acts, as developed by the social psychologist G. H. Mead. On a Meadian view the economic actor would neither have to grow additional capacities in order to coordinate with his or her fellows, as the evolutionary games theorist's agent has to do, nor depart or deviate from purposeful behavior, as does Homo sociologicus . On a Meadian view, economic capacity has to be more richly endowed than standard Homo economicus in order to do what it is supposed to do, but it is recognizably still a single, purposeful capacity.     

公私合作伙伴关系在我国城市更新领域的应用——基于上海新天地项目的分析

公私合作伙伴关系在西方国家的城市更新领域是一种重要且盛行的运行机制,然而在向市场经济转型的中国却仍属于新兴事物.在阐释相关概念和理论的基础上,运用增长联盟、城市政体等政治经济学理论工具具体解析上海新天地项目的开发动力、运作形式和运作机理,讨论我国实施这一机制存在的典型问题,得出以下结论:这种机制促使公私双方间形成了一个典型的亲增长联盟,并能使公私双方利用各自所拥有的资源获得比独自行动更有利的结果,但公私双方的结盟合作有可能会牺牲其他参与主体的部分利益,从而引发社会不公;另外,对政策的高度依赖使得联盟内部关系并不牢固,缺少实施公私合作伙伴关系的文化与经验,以及一味强调城市增长而忽视以人为本的科学     

What's Wrong With Performance Appraisals? A Critique and A Suggestion

Keith Grint, who is a Fellow in Organizational Behaviour at Templeton College, Oxford, offers a critical evaluation of performance appraisal systems. He argues that the traditional criticism of appraisals – their subjectivity – leads to a fruitless search for ever more objective appraisal criteria that are illusory. the consequence need not be that appraisals should be abandoned but they should be treated much more sceptically and reflexively. In particular, he suggests, there are strong arguments for supplementing traditional downward appraisals of subordinates with upward appraisals of superordinates.     

Coping with the Tragedy of the Commons: Game Structure and Design of Rules

Abstract.  The paper provides an assessment of some recent results of the large amount of New Institutional Economics analyses investigating a common-pool resource setting, with a specific focus on game theory models. Most of the studies have used a noncooperative approach in order to explain how under-provision for the resource or its over-use – the so-called Tragedy of the Commons – can be avoided, within given management rules. They show how the characteristics of the game (payoff matrix, repetition) or of the users (group size, wealth, heterogeneity and moral norms) may give incentives for the latter to play in a way that benefits all users. By contrast, much fewer articles have used a formalized approach to assess the possibility for players to design new rules to overcome the initial Tragedy of the Commons. The article ends with some proposals of directions for future research.     

有限合伙企业内部治理问题探析

有限合伙企业所包含的人资两合的特点与有限责任和无限责任的结合,使其能满足不同投资者的不同需求,因此自其创设起便受到了投资家们的青睐。如今法律对有限合伙的明确规定是顺应市场经济作出的自然选择。因此,探析其内部治理问题对于有效推动有限合伙企业的良性运作,促进产业经济的发展有着重要的意义和价值。     

建立合作伙伴关系的博弈分析

通过经济学原理分析了供应链成员之间建立合作伙伴关系的内在动力，通过博弈论的基本原理以及与现实经济社会的现状结合，提出了建立合作伙伴关系的博弈情况，实现供应链整体的帕雷托最优状态。     

英国城市复兴中的合作伙伴组织

合作伙伴组织作为英国城市复兴的主要组织形式,为城市复兴做出了积极贡献。组织的包容性、人力资源、工作文化等是影响其成效的具体因素。我国的城市建设和治理可以从中得到启示,在政府现代化、政府与市民社会的合作以及将社区等机构纳入合作伙伴组织方面有所作为。