Professional Development: the Individual Perspective

This article outlines why and how professional development processes need to be changed - from the perspective of the individual. It builds not only on a five-year experience in helping individual business school faculty develop their capabilities, but also on experience with other professionals ranging from bankers to entrepreneurs. Key features of the recommended process are that formal professional development should not be remedial but should be regarded as an integral and rewarding part of work.     

Structural change and industrial classification

Understanding of structural change is compromised because scholars do not clearly articulate the limits of the classification infrastructure (NAICS or GICS) that shapes empirical analysis. These limits are particularly salient in the study of innovation, an activity that by its nature challenges existing categories. Because innovative industries are often not part of the classification infrastructure, they are invisible in empirical analyses and in government statistics. This paper examines the classification of a population of highly innovative, often small, firms working in gaming devices, packaging, filtration, photonics, imaging, biomedical research and fabless semiconductor design. I find examples of knowledge integration, vertical disintegration and emerging industries that challenge both NAICS and GICS exposing their strengths and weaknesses.     

Adoption barriers and resistance to sustainable solutions in the automotive sector

Development of alternative fuels and engines in the automotive sector is a requirement for building a sustainable energy policy. However, private consumers' acceptance of technological alternatives to internal combustion engines is still minimal. This study has two objectives. Based on theoretical and empirical findings, this study examines risk-related adoption barriers and their impact upon innovation resistance to sustainable solutions in the automotive sector. In the next step, a cluster analysis leads to various groups of private drivers with reference to the risk dimensions as perceived by consumers in the context of a possible purchase of an NGV. The paper concludes with research and managerial implications as opportunities to address and overcome risk-related adoption barriers and individual consumer's innovation resistance.     

The G20 at the Cancun Ministerial: Developing Countries and Their Evolving Coalitions in the WTO

In large measure, the voice that developing countries were able to exercise in Cancun was a result of their effective coalition formation. In this paper we present a brief overview of the various coalitions that played an important role at Cancun. The greater part of this paper focuses on one among these various coalitions: the G20 on agriculture. The G20 presents an especially fascinating case of a coalition that combined a great diversity of members and apparently incompatible interests. All theoretical reasoning and historical precedent predicted that the group would collapse in the endgame. And yet the group survived. We investigate the sources of the unity of this group and trace them to a process of learning that allowed the group to acquire certain structural features and develop strategies that helped to cement it further. While our central dependent variable is the cohesion of the G20, we also address the derivative question of the costs and benefits of maintaining such coalitions. The Cancun coalitions give us an excellent case of coalitions that managed to retain their cohesion, but also ended up with a situation of no agreement rather than a fulfilment of even some of their demands. We examine some of the causes behind the impasse in the negotiation process and suggest ways in which future outcomes could be improved.     

Offshoring: Value Creation through Economic Change

abstract    In this essay, I analyse the economic and managerial dimensions of offshoring, drawing from recent research by the McKinsey Global Institute. I argue that offshoring, like other forms of trade, creates enormous value for both companies and the economy as a whole. However, in the case of countries with less flexible labour markets such as Germany, findings are more nuanced. While the potential cost savings for companies from offshoring appear impressive, our research suggests that companies are leaving billions of dollars behind when they offshore. We propose several ways companies could make capital-labour trade-offs to create new markets and services. By maximizing gains from offshoring, companies can both cut costs and generate revenue. Given the benefits offshoring, the challenge is how to make the transition to a global economy less painful for workers and increase the participation in the wealth creation. Hence, I also identify options to help policymakers and companies manage the changes offshoring requires.     

MANAGERS' OCCUPATIONAL HISTORIES, ORGANIZATIONAL ENVIRONMENTS, AND CLIMATES FOR MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT

Abstract Seventeen intact collegiate groups of managers from eight companies and two publicly owned organizations described the organizational climates in which they worked. Their perceptions ranged from highly favourable to highly unfavourable. Did the occupational histories of the 134 managers influence their perceptions? Could the differences in their evaluations have arisen from other features of the environment, for which unobtrusive measures were available? Or was the level of each group in the hierarchy the prime determinant? All of these explanations have some plausibility in relation to the data presented. It is probably impossible to create‘the right climate’for management development by piecemeal strategies which ignore the significance of market success and deal only with the immediate experience of managers. On the other hand, a global strategy which concentrates on external factors and minimizes the importance of the individual's contribution in his particular location is likely to be equally defective. The major moderating variable in this study between the perceived developmental climate of the organization and the manager's occupational history was the salary he was paid.     

Central Bank Independence,Speed of Disinflation and the Sacrifice Ratio

Using a theoretical model in which the degree of central bank independence affects the degree of inflation persistence and therefore the speed of disinflation, this paper suggests that sacrifice ratios are lower when central bank independence is higher. Empirical tests, using estimates of sacrifice ratios based on disinflation episodes for 18 OECD countries during the 1960–90 period, show that this result also holds empirically. This finding seems to be consistent with the credibility hypothesis by pointing out that an independent central bank may produce a credibility bonus.     

Expressions of corporate social responsibility in U.K. firms

This study examines corporate publications of U.K. firms to investigate the nature of corporate social responsibility disclosure. Using a stakeholder approach to corporate social responsibility, our results suggest a hierarchical model of disclosure: from general rhetoric to specific endeavors to implementation and monitoring. Industry differences in attention to specific stakeholder groups are noted. These differences suggest the need to understand the effects on social responsibility disclosure of factors in a firm's immediate operating environment, such as the extent of government regulation and level of competitiveness in the industry. Diana C. Robertson is an Assistant Professor of Organisational Behaviour and Business Ethics at the London Business School. She was previously Assistant Professor of Legal Studies at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. In 1990, she was awarded the University of Pennsylvania Provost's Award for Distinguished Teaching, and in 1992 she received a Wharton School Undergraduate Teaching Award. Her research interests include the impact of corporate policy, particularly codes of ethics, and compensation and control systems on employees' ethical behaviour, and the diffusion of ethical practices among corporations. She has published articles in the Sloan Management Review, Journal of Business Ethics, Organization Science, and Business Ethics Quarterly.Professional Nigel Nicholson is Chairman of the Organisational Behaviour Group and Director of the Centre for Organisation Research at London Business School. Previously, he led investigations into Individual and Organisational Change at Sheffield University's Social & Applied Psychology Unit, and has also held visiting appointments at American, Canadian and German universities. He has published eight books and over 65 articles on a wide range of topics, and been honoured with an award from the Academy of Management for his contribution to theory.