Transforming New Ideas into Practice: An Activity Based Perspective on the Institutionalization of Practices

We develop an activity‐focused process model of how new ideas can be transformed into front line practice by reviving attention to the importance of habitualization as a key component of institutionalization. In contrast to established models that explain how ideas diffuse or spread from one organization to another, we employ a micro‐level perspective to study the subsequent intra‐organizational processes through which these ideas are transformed into new workplace practices. We followed efforts to transform the organizationally accepted idea of ‘interdisciplinary teamwork’ into new everyday practices in four cases over a six year time period. We contribute to the literature by focusing on de‐habitualizing and re‐habitualizing behaviours that connect micro‐level actions with organizational level theorizing. Our model illuminates three phases that we propose are essential to creating and sustaining this connection: micro‐level theorizing, encouraging trying the new practices, and facilitating collective meaning‐making.     

Workforce motivation in Japan: an examination of gender differences and management perceptions

As Japan enters the new century, pending workforce shortages – a function of low birth rates and an aging population – increase the need to address gender issues in organizations. Throughout the past four decades, the number of female workers in Japan has been growing, although full-time female participation in the Japanese workforce remains below the levels of some other industrialized nations. Despite the growing importance that the Japanese female labor force is expected to play, relatively little is known about women's attitudes toward work motivation in Japan. Using a two-factor, Herzberg intrinsic/extrinsic approach to motivation, we examine the applicability of such a model in Japan, and compare the attitudes of female and male workers, as well as management and non-management. Our findings include: (1) support for the applicability of a Herzberg, two-factor model in Japan; (2) Japanese men in the workforce tending to value intrinsic motivators more than extrinsic factors; (3) female workers in Japan rating extrinsic factors higher than their male counterparts; and (4) managers' opinions of what motivates employees not constituting a refined match to those of female employees, especially with respect to extrinsic motivation. In multi-gender Japanese organizations, management will potentially benefit from a better understanding and functional integration of important gender nuances into their motivation strategies.     

Distributional effects of multilateral and preferential trade liberalisation: The case of Paraguay

The aim of this work is to dissect the distributional impact of preferential and multilateral trade liberalisation on household well-being using individual level data for Paraguay never exploited so far. For this purpose, the intrazone and applied most favored nation (MFN) tariff pass-through rate on the prices of traded goods is estimated, and the impacts of trade induced price changes on households as consumers and as income earners are calculated. The results indicate that trade liberalisation has benefited households along the entire income distribution and, most importantly, show that these benefits differ according to the type of liberalisation policies implemented.     

Solid waste management in Mexico’s offshore platform construction: determining potential supply for a reverse logistics process

One of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) is to ensure environmental sustainability. This has led international agencies to regulate the generation of waste, specifically solid waste, which is an issue of international significance. This research is an analytical, statistical, historical and deductive investigation that focuses on the management of municipal solid waste and special handling waste (SHW), specifically, the one generated in the construction of offshore platforms in Mexico. A comparative analysis of the waste generated domestically and in the construction of offshore platforms is done. This work proposes the introduction of a third party operator that, through reverse logistics, would develop strategies to recover, reuse or recycle SHW. The level of compliance of the Waste Management Plans of platform construction companies in Mexico is also analyzed. Currently, nine construction companies distributed in the states of Tabasco, Tamaulipas and Veracruz are building offshore platforms in Mexico. Particularly, the south zone of Tamaulipas has become, since the seventies, the largest provider of offshore platforms. These companies are required by law to report the amount of municipal solid waste and SHW that they generate. However, when analyzing the data provided, results show a great area of opportunity. With a proper management of waste, its recovery and/or disposal would be much more efficient. Data collected in the yards of construction is presented, as well as the current situation of the waste in the offshore platform construction industry and possible methods to strengthen environmental policy in solid waste in Mexico.     

The contribution of personality to graduate managerial training

It is postulated that personality assessment can contribute significantly to the design of first-line management training and development programmes. Based on a comparative exploratory study of 70 hospitality students and 94 service sector managers in Hungary, the contribution of their relative personality profiles, as measured by Cattell's 16PF5, to managerial personal and interpersonal competencies is examined The findings reveal a mismatch between the personality profiles of the students and the managers. It is concluded that objectively assessed prospective trainee personality profiles can generate appropriate topics for both company and individual management development and training programmes.     

Book reviews

Louviere, Jordan. 1988. Analyzing decision making: Metric conjoint measurement. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. ISBN 080397576. 95 pp. Paper $6.95.

DiGiulio, Robert C. 1989. Beyond widowhood—from bereavement to emergence and hope. New York: The Free Press. ISBN 0–02–907882–2. 240 pp. Cloth, $19.95

Ewert, Alan W. 1989. Outdoor adventure pursuits: Foundations, models, and theories. Worthington, Ohio: Publishing Horizons, Inc. ISBN 0–942280–50–4. 234 pp. Hardcover, $20.00.     

Environmental Interpretation in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park: An Assessment of Programme Effectiveness

This study sought to determine how visitor environmental interpretation programmes in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park could be assessed to determine their effectiveness in educating visitors about the reef environment and conservation issues. A self-administered visitor questionnaire was designed to identify changes in visitor knowledge and understanding of the reef's basic ecology, human impacts, health and tourism. The study used an independent sample design in which visitors aboard a large reef-trip vessel were surveyed over one week before exposure to the operation's interpretive programme. A second set of visitors was then surveyed following completion of the interpretive programme. The survey identified significant changes in visitors' self-reported knowledge of the reef environment as a result of the trip. Additionally, visitors' self-reported knowledge and understanding of basic reef ecology and human impacts on the reef environment differed significantly in relation to the number of interpretive activities in which they participated. These findings suggest that (1) reef-based visitor interpretation programmes can effectively change visitor understanding of key reef topics and issues, and (2) methods of evaluating reef-based interpretive programmes can be undertaken through self-administered questionnaires.     

PORTFOLIOS OF AMERICAN OPTIONS UNDER GENERAL PREFERENCES: RESULTS AND COUNTEREXAMPLES

We consider the optimal exercise of a portfolio of American call options in an incomplete market. Options are written on a single underlying asset but may have different characteristics of strikes, maturities, and vesting dates. Our motivation is to model the decision faced by an employee who is granted options periodically on the stock of her company, and who is not permitted to trade this stock. The first part of our study considers the optimal exercise of single options. We prove results under minimal assumptions and give several counterexamples where these assumptions fail—describing the shape and nesting properties of the exercise regions. The second part of the study considers portfolios of options with differing characteristics. The main result is that options with comonotonic strike, maturity, and vesting date should be exercised in order of increasing strike. It is true under weak assumptions on preferences and requires no assumptions on prices. Potentially the exercise ordering result can significantly reduce the complexity of computations in a particular example. This is illustrated by solving the resulting dynamic programming problem in a constant absolute risk aversion utility indifference model.     

Valuing quality attributes of Australian merino wool

We measure the relationship between clean prices of individual lots of wool sold at auction and a range of characteristics of the raw wool. Based on the data for 111,440 fleece lots sold in the 2008–2009 auction season, five hedonic models are estimated to determine the premiums and discounts associated with each wool characteristic in five micron categories. Several wool characteristics exhibited significant nonlinear relationships, and therefore, joint density functions were assessed where appropriate. The results indicate that fibre diameter has the greatest influence on price in all markets. Brand contamination, higher levels of unscourable colour and vegetable matter contamination were found to negatively influence price.