Ladder of competencies for education middle managers in England

Utilising new empirical research this study adapts an existing literature-based competency framework into a hierarchy of competencies needed for education middle managers in England to be effective in their role. The study involved a national survey (n = 164) of further education middle managers and is the first quantitative study investigating the role since 2002. The original contribution of the study is the development of a new ladder of competencies for education middle managers which outlines a suggested ordering of competency development with due consideration to prior training and qualifications. This can enable an improved approach to recruitment, selection and development of education middle managers. The paper presents parameters for consideration when developing competency frameworks for roles more widely which include: prior training, experience, expectations, and challenges of the post-holder as well as the external working environment. It highlights the value of such considerations and demonstrates the importance in paying due regard to them.     

Higher aims fulfilled: The Social Capital Academy as a means for advancing underrepresented students in comprehensive university business schools

Current research underscores how a college education can reflect broader social inequality via the disproportionate flow of resources to elite universities and advantaged students. In contrast, underresourced comprehensive universities disproportionately serve minority, first-generation, and working-class students. This article argues that the comprehensive university is uniquely positioned to reduce social inequality and that the comprehensive university undergraduate business school (CUUBS) should test a new approach to education. The article also advocates a substantive response to social inequality by (1) focusing on undergraduate business education within comprehensive universities rather than MBA programs in well-funded, elite business schools, (2) implementing a strategic emphasis on career-related jobs (CRJs) for underrepresented students, and (3) helping students pursue CRJs via the development of a Social Capital Academy (SCA). This article describes the benefits of an SCA for underrepresented students, its requirements and benefits for universities and business communities, and the possibilities for scaling the program to address social inequality. Future applications of the SCA to STEM-related fields are also explored.     

Debt as a source of financial stress in Australian households

This paper examines the role of demographic, socio‐economic and debt portfolio characteristics as contributors to financial stress in Australian households. The data are drawn from the most recent Household Expenditure Survey and relate to 3268 probability‐weighted households. Financial stress is defined, among other things, in terms of financial reasons for being unable to have a holiday, to have meals with family and friends, to engage in hobbies and other leisure activities, and general money management. Characteristics examined include family structure and composition, source and level of household income, age, gender and marital status, ethnic background, housing value, debt repayment of various types and credit card usage. Binary logit models are used to identify the source and magnitude of factors associated with financial stress. The evidence provided suggests that financial stress is higher in families with more children and those from ethnic minorities, especially when reliant on government pensions and benefits, and lower in families with higher disposable incomes and housing values. There is weak evidence that Australia's historically high levels of household debt cause financial stress.     

Brace yourself! Why managers should adopt a synthetic media incident response playbook in an age of falsity and synthetic media

Synthetic media presents looming threats to managers in a business setting. To address this issue, we first offer a short overview of the evolution of media manipulation to contextualize the new era of synthetic media. Then, we present the problems associated with synthetic media via veridicality and heuristics to illustrate how consumers have little choice but to believe what they see, read, and hear online. We outline the most likely and impactful types of synthetic media threats and attacks and present a synthetic media incident response playbook. Our aim is to inform managers about six specific phases so they can prepare, assess, detect, analyze, and recover from synthetic media incidents and coordinate their lessons learned.     

Analyzing the Structure of the International Business Curriculum in India

This article analyzes the structure of the international business curriculum through a questionnaire-based survey among current students and young managers who are studying or have studied international business courses in one of the top B-Schools of India. Respondents have the opinion that international business is more than internationalization of different functional areas and is to be treated as a separate academic discipline. In the context of pedagogy, respondents feel the need for more elective courses on international business and prefer learning through different methods such as foreign country visits, simulation, and role playing activities.     

Organizational identification as a determinant of customer orientation in service organizations

The marketing literature suggests that frontline employees are the central determinant of how customer-oriented a service organization is perceived to be by its customers. However, little is known about the contingencies of employees’ customer orientation (CO) beyond personality traits and broadly construed work attitudes. Based on the social identity approach, the present article develops a multilevel model whereby CO is the result of identity-based management of frontline employees. Two empirical studies in the travel industry show that employees’ CO depends on employees’ organizational identification and their leaders’ acting as role models of CO.     

Use of a Parallel-Emic Research Model and Key-Word-In-Context Indexing Tool to Develop an Instructional Exercise to Promote Student Global Mindedness

ABSTRACT

Educators have long sought how to prepare students to develop a global mind set and to work under conditions of complexity and uncertainty common in many world markets. The purpose of this study was to support educators in this cause by providing them with a “hands-on” exercise readily adaptable across the business curriculum to identify how culture shapes business concepts/practices of interest. Details are presented in a step-by-step procedure based upon a recognized “parallel-emic” research model developed to study cross-cultural differences to ensure analytical rigor. A Key-Word-In-Context (KWIC) indexing tool was employed to add precision and efficiency to the search process to help students readily identify common (etic-derived) and unique factors (emic-specific) shaping business concepts/practices cross-culturally.     

Financing decisions as a source of conflict in venture boards

Governance scholarship has suggested that venture boards should be structured so as to stimulate internal conflict. However, structure is a weak predictor of board effectiveness. Moreover, conflict can be dysfunctional, especially when it is focused on relationships rather than tasks. We show that venture boards experience more relationship conflict when they make financing decisions that involve devaluation of the venture and that this effect is moderated by whether the CEO is a founder. Our findings should prompt venture governance scholars to reconsider the importance of board structure, the value of board conflict and the behavior of founder- versus non-founder CEOs.     

新时期地球科学发展与地学创新人才培养的思考

面对人类社会发展的新格局和经济社会发展的新需求,地球科学研究视域、学科任务、知识体系和方法手段等正酝酿着新的变革。面对经济社会大转型和新时期地球科学的发展,创新体制机制、培养地学创新人才是地质教育义不容辞的责任和重要课题。创新人才有类别和层次之分,可以区分为学术创新人才、技术创新人才和创业人才,应遵循＂尊重意愿、鉴识潜力、分类培养、通专结合、以专为重＂的方针进行培养。最后给出了一个成都理工大学实施创新人才培养的典型案例。     

Spear phishing in a barrel: Insights from a targeted phishing campaign

Executives in many industries have fallen prey to socially engineered attacks known as spear phishing. Using highly targeted emails, social engineers trick victims into performing unintended actions by masquerading as legitimate actors. To shed light on effective spear phishing training, we conducted a multi-round experiment. Our results indicate that training users with individual loss messaging might increase the effectiveness of the training. Additionally, we found potential evidence that organizational training can lead to increased overall spear phishing awareness, even for those not directly trained. Despite these promising results, however, individuals’ susceptibility to highly targeted spear phishing attacks remains troubling for practitioners and researchers.     

Discursive power as a source of legitimation in food retail governance

In the food sector, retailers often present themselves as guardians of consumer interests, with superior efficiency and effectiveness in the governance of food, in relation to public actors. Concerns about retail governance institutions, such as private standards or Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), mainly emphasise a lack of input legitimacy, that is legitimacy relying on democratic procedures. Less often concerns are raised regarding output legitimacy, that is legitimacy based on the effectiveness of retail governance institutions. Based on concepts of discursive power, this paper explores how retail corporations establish their claim to legitimacy in food governance via concepts of output legitimacy. The paper pursues its aim by performing a critical discourse analysis of retailers' discursive strategies identified here as imperialist, recursive, symbiotic and ironic.     

Stuck at the bottom: Role of tacit and explicit knowledge on innovation of developing-country suppliers in global value chains

We take a social exchange theoretical perspective of innovation to develop and test a model of the intervening role of tacit and explicit knowledge exchange in explaining innovation of developing-country suppliers in non-equity-based global value chains (NEGVCs). Results of structural equation modelling for a sample of Bangladeshi suppliers embedded in apparel NEGVCs show that tacit and explicit knowledge fully mediate the associations between network competence and both low value-added and high value-added innovation contingent on the quality of network relationships. We also found that both tacit and explicit knowledge contribute more to low value-added innovation than to high value-added innovation. The managerial and policy implications of our findings as to why developing-country suppliers in NEGVCs are stuck in low value-added activities are fully discussed.     

财经类院校开展校企合作教育的思考

校企合作教育是一种以市场和社会需求为导向的运行机制,对于高等院校应用型人才培养有着非常重要的作用。校企合作的关键点在于校企双方利益共享、优势互补、互惠双赢。学校在校企合作教育中处于主动地位,是合作成败的决定性因素。建议学校从运行、保障、评价三个方面进行管理机制的建设,与企业建立起长期稳定、互惠互利的合作长效机制,实现校企双方的共赢。     

The emotions of top managers and key persons in cross-border M&As: Evidence from a longitudinal case study

Building on prior research on emotions in M&A, this paper analyses the post-M&A emotions of top managers and key persons from the acquired company by examining what triggers emotions during the post-acquisition integration stage, and what the consequences of those emotions are. This study applies cognitive appraisal and affective event theories with empirical evidence based on a longitudinal, single case study of an Indian–Finnish acquisition. The main findings imply that M&As are very emotional for top managers and key persons. Our findings reveal that they experience a wide range of positive and negative emotions triggered by individual and company-level triggers. Interestingly various triggers can have different and opposite appraisal outcomes in the short and long-term. In addition, top managers and key persons are often restricted in the range of behavioural outcomes caused by emotions.     

MBA Teaching Challenges in a Changing Political and Economic Environment: A Case Study of MBA Teachers and Students in Poland

Master of Business Administration (MBA) education was introduced to Poland in the early 1990s with the purpose of preparing business practitioners for effective management and leadership in a market economy and increasingly globalizing marketplace. Due to individual, institutional, and national factors; adjusting teaching to address the complex needs of business professionals has proved to be challenging and often problematic for Polish faculty. The purpose of this paper is to examine these challenges in the context of Poland's nondegree MBA programs and to explore potential solutions. The main conclusion of this paper is that adjusting teaching is a slow and complex process that cannot occur without substantial changes in values as well as proactive leadership and collaboration at the individual, institutional, and national levels.     

新时代产教共享生态系统建构研究

建构产教共享生态系统是将职业教育产教融合推向深入的重要途径。在产教共享生态系统中,政府是统筹规划者,企业是系统主导者,高职院校是积极参与者,中介组织发挥着黏合剂和催化剂的作用。新时代构建产教共享生态系统是转变职业教育形态、推进职业教育创新的有效途径,是推动产业发展的动力源泉。就建构路径而言,政府要发挥协调职能,完善与产教融合配套的政策法规建设;企业要强化主体作用,树立社会责任意识;高职院校要调整人才培养模式,增强服务地方产业能力;中介组织要协同构建,扩宽产教融合渠道。     

Human capital formation under neo-liberalism: the legacy of vocational education training in Australasia and implications for the Asia-Pacific region

Abstract

This appraisal considers the role and impact of vocational education and training (VET) in Australia and New Zealand, and suggests directions such policy might take in other Asia-Pacific countries. It identifies key issues and constraints in making VET more responsive to emerging labour market needs in the region as an important factor in sustaining high economic growth. It focuses on the way in which the demands of the government, industry, trainees, and, in particular, shifts in political ideology that have influenced the education and training sectors in both countries. It addresses points of specific relevance for the delivery of VET in the broader Asia-Pacific context and concludes with a consideration of lessons and experiences of Australia and New Zealand with VET that may hold for other countries in the region in formulating priorities and implementing strategies in meeting their current and emerging needs for skills development.     

Public-Sector Accounting and E-Governance in Developing Countries: Case of Sri Lanka

This article analyzes how new public financial management system should address the efficiency and effectiveness of the public sector and the emerging accrual basis accounting with e-governance for greater e-transparency on public-sector accounting in Sri Lanka. Despite the setting up of e-framework in 1983, the Sri Lankan public-sector accountancy environment during the last two decades raises concerns about efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability of the e-framework. The findings provide evidence of the importance of the economy and efficiency in the usage of public funds to provide more convenient access to government accounting information for citizens in Sri Lanka.