Future skills and current realities: How the psychological (Jungian) type of European business leaders relates to the needs of the future

How ready for the future are our business leaders? This paper addresses this question by drawing on two pieces of research. An international skills audit was carried out to ascertain if the skills needed by future business leaders would be different from the skills needed today; the results from 340 respondents are presented. These are compared with data on the Jungian type of over 8000 senior managers and executives taken from nine different European countries. Type was measured by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator^® (MBTI^®) instrument. The findings are used to identify challenges for the future. For example, although the audit suggested that skills such as the ability to empower others are likely to become increasingly important, people with the most common type preference amongst European senior managers (ESTJ) may, especially when under stress, have a particular tendency to want to make all the decisions themselves, without any input from others. The ways in which organisational psychologists and HR practitioners can employ psychological type to help leaders meet these challenges are briefly discussed.     

Learning about the future: From the learner's perspective

The path for a hopeful future depends on learning, a process that is a complex symphony of human experience. It is a process that demands deep questioning and critique of our world-views. It is a process that requires that we open ourselves to and effectively cope with a myriad of emotions. It is a process that compels us to engage in soul-searching as we explore our human responsibilities and commitments, connect with the meaning and purpose of our very existence and choose paths of action based on those reflections. Learning to care for future generations and the world they will inherit is a unique and holistic process. Our ability to support this form of learning begins with an understanding of the human experience of learning, from the perspective of learners.     

Sri Lanka: Futures beyond conflict

Not so long ago, Sri Lanka was stereotypically portrayed as a stable, model democracy inhabited by friendly and fun-loving natives; a place in the sun reserved for enjoyment; an oasis in the so called (poverty and disease ridden) ‘Third World’; a virtual paradise for tourists and natives alike. In reality, Sri Lanka has seen the burgeoning of revolutionary struggles and nationalist fervour, from putschist attempts to capture state power to liberation and self-determination. The author argues that it is the model of parliamentary democracy that is largely responsible for the ethnic violence and bloodshed on this island. It ensured the rise of the post-colonial political élite who then ensured that all the hegemonic tendencies of colonialism were preserved and entrenched. It is imperative for shaping viable futures for Sri Lanka that a new ethics and moral code of good governance—which includes transparency in government and politics—is initiated.     

The zeno event: Science and the acceleration of history

It is commonly accepted that the scientific and technological revolution constantly increases its speed. There are a variety of indicators of this process, and an interesting, perhaps important, question is whether they tend to a common conclusion about the future of our society. In this study, we examine several such indicators, relating to both short- and long-term processes. We find that they all agree, predicting a sort of ‘Zeno event’ around the middle of the next century. This current investigation serves as a signal to those who wish to study the possibility of such a limit-event; its time-series can be tested again in the near future. If they are corroborated, this approach can serve as a well-validated warning, so that we may not merely study the world of the future but also transform it.     

自强不息厚德载物——中国工商银行2010年全国劳动模范速描

编者按:劳动模范是国家建设事业中成绩卓著的劳动者?是推进先进生产力和先进文化发展的杰出代表.劳模精神体现着一种积极进取、无私奉献的价值取向,能够拆射出一个时代的面貌.     

The city summit: The lessons of Istanbul

Global summits have been frequent over the past four years — on environment and development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992; on population and development in Cairo in 1994; on social development in Copenhagen in 1995; and on women in Beijing in 1995. The last of this series was the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) which took place in Istanbul in June 1996. After reminding us of the speed of urbanization and the enormous stakes involved in the development of megalopolises, the author gives his account of this ‘summit on cities’ and seven lessons he learned from it.     

Environmental flows: Telecommunications and the dematerialisation of cities?

This paper explores the relationship between telecommunications systems and urban environmental policy. It challenges the powerful, and often taken for granted, assumption that telecommunications improve the environmental performance of cities because the technologies are ‘inherently environmentally benign’ and that they simply ‘substitute’ for travel, inevitably leading towards the dematerialisation of the contemporary city. Instead the paper argues that telecommunications raise serious environmental problems and act as powerful materialisers, particularly as a generator of new demands for travel. It shows that the environmental implications of telecommunications are undoubtedly more complex and contradictory than is often assumed.     

Futures studies: From individual to social capacity

Futures study is not yet well established at the social level. Given the unstable conditions of the late 20th century, and the challenging outlook of the early 21st, this is a serious oversight. The article considers how futures studies can be progressively developed through five distinct layers, or levels. First is the natural capacity of the human brain/mind system to envisage a range of futures. Second, is the clarifying, enlivening and motivating role of futures concepts and ideas. Third are analytic gains provided by futures tools and methods. Fourth are a range of practical and intellectual applications, or contexts. When each of these levels functions in a coordinated way, grounds for the emergence of futures studies at the social level can clearly be seen. The article concludes with a brief summary of a preferred future which would arguably be within reach if futures studies were to progress along such a path from individual to social capacity.     

Climate in the making: Using Delphi for Finnish climate policy

In the assessment of the present state of climate change and the projection of its future development and impacts on human society, one of the core issues is the interaction between decision makers and the scientific community. Knowledge of the human and natural processes behind climatic change and of the risks involved should be communicated to policy makers in a form that is both comprehensible and useful in the formulation of policy measures. At the same time, the scientific community must meet the practical requirements and goals for research set by decision makers, even if this creates problems involving the validity of overly hasty answers to questions of paramount complexity. The purpose of this paper is to present some results of the study dealing with these questions and in particular to discuss the future scenarios produced in the course of that project.     

基层央行会计业务对账系统的设计与实现

目前,中国人民银行（以下简称“央行”）会计营业部门与开户单位实行手工按月（句）对账制度,即央行按月（旬）向开户单位发送对账单,由开户单位填列余额和未达账项并加盖预留印鉴后于次月15日前返还央行。这种对账方式具有对账工作量大、对账间隔周期长、账务核对处理不及时的缺陷,差错从发生到发现时间间隔最长可达45天。     

The tyranny of light: The temptations and the paradoxes of the information society

A distinguishing feature of late modern societies is the significant extent to which they are dependent on knowledge for their functioning. Contrary to how knowledge was viewed in pre-modern societies, knowledge now tends to be understood as information, that is as consisting of objectified, commodified, abstract, decontextualized representations. The overabundance of information in late modernity makes the information society full of temptations. It tempts us into thinking that knowledge-as-information is objective and exists independently of human beings; that everything can be reduced into information; and that generating ever more amounts of information will increase the transparency of society and, thus, lead to the rational management of social problems. However, as argued in this paper, the information society is riddled with paradoxes that prevent it from satisfying the temptations it creates. More information may lead to less understanding; more information may undermine trust; and more information may make society less rationally governable. These claims are illustrated with examples from the UK and the USA.     

Issues and challenges in the evolution of multimedia: The case of the newspaper

This article examines the key issues facing the emergence of multimedia in the newspaper industry. It looks at the underpinning forces coming from both the newspaper industry and the relentless advance in information and communication technologies. The fast growth in the number of newspapers in the Internet is then examined and the major business issues and dilemmas are discussed in detail. The rise of a variety of alliances bears witness to the need to collaborate to reduce the uncertainty of the multimedia newspaper (ad-)ventures.     

The futures of democracy in Pakistan: A liberal perspective

Due to the domination of state institutions over political institutions, Pakistan has not experienced a steady consolidation of democracy over its fifty year history. This is manifest in the lack of roots of constitutionalism, the absence of fully autonomous judiciary, a well developed party system and regularly held fair elections. Recent political developments such as the gradual withdrawal of state institutions particularly the military from the political arena, greater assertiveness of the judiciary, parliaments' curtailment of president powers and rising political consciousness among the people have brightened the chances of survival of democracy in the country. Its further consolidation will depend on the capacity of elected leaders to address the serious problems of ethnic and religious dissensions, financial vulnerability, heavy indebtedness, skyrocketing inflation and serious economic disparities.     

Africa in the 1990s and beyond: Alternative prescriptions and projections

This article examines the origins, dimensions and implications of Africa's crisis. It draws attention to the impact of historical experiences, the distortions and disarticulations of that experience, and to the coalitions, contradictions, crises and conflicts inherited at independence. It looks at postcolonial alignment and realignment of social and political forces, the crisis of accumulation and power, and the implications of the region's marginal location and role in the global division of labour and power. Calling for a need to transcend the manifestations of the African predicament, the article looks at regional and international responses to the crisis. It concludes by prescribing the need for a fundamental political restructuring, the empowerment of the people and their communities and organizations, a socially sensitive structural adjustment programme, and the recomposition of the content and context of politics and social relations.     

Transcending flatland: Implications of Ken Wilber's meta-narrative for futures studies

The Western futures project was originally founded on empiricist notions of prediction, forecasting and control. While other approaches to futures work, other traditions and ways of knowing, have certainly become established, the early framing of Futures Studies arguably occurred out of this broadly reductionist framework—what Wilber has since termed `flatland'. As a result, current ideologies such as: economic growth, globalisation, the pre-eminence accorded to science and technology, and `man's conquest of nature'—were insufficiently problematised. Technology-led views of the future remain influential within Futures Studies, bureaucratic thinking and popular culture. In this view, the future is less open than it might be because it is seen merely as an extension of the present. Critical Futures Studies question such assumptions. The paper explores how the work of this leading transpersonal synthesist can contribute both to a broadening and deepening of Futures Studies and thus help to activate cultural options that are presently obscured.     

The four and five year old's understanding of the future: A preliminary study

A significant imbalance exists in the lack of research on young children's understandings of the future. Recent studies highlight the difficulties experienced by young people in coming to terms with the future, which is generally viewed with trepidation and ambivalence by children as young as ten years of age. While there is a growing body of research in this area, there has been very little undertaken on how younger children think about these issues. To focus our attention on younger children's understandings and attitudes in this area would improve our understanding on the development of young children's thinking on time and the future and assist us to implement strategies to counteract the negativity and pessimism experienced at later years.