Public Management: Raising Our Game

Whatever the colour of the new government after the election, success in tackling social and economic policy problems will prove elusive without a fundamentally different approach to policy making and implementation. The authors argue that the fundamental challenge to the new government is to change the architecture of the system of public policy formulation and implementation to make it fit for purpose. There is growing evidence that the current system can no longer deliver effective responses to the increasingly complex problems faced by society. Radical change is needed to the processes and machinery which exist today, without abandoning innovations in public service management or the Thatcher and Major regimes, or returning to previous systems of government. The practice of public management is central to this change.     

What Is happening to middle managers in Europe? problems and promises associated with their changing roles and responsibilities

Few people have anything encouraging to say about middle management: past, present, or future. The picture of middle management that comes from many articles and from the business press is predominantly a gloomy one. Most writers portray the middle manager as a frustrated, disillusioned individual caught in the middle of a hierarchy, impotent, and with no real hope of career progression. In this article, these predictions are discussed and compared with a recent study of middle management in Europe that suggests a different picture. The authors have been participating in a six-country Western European study, initiated and partially funded by the European Foundation for Living and Working conditions, which has been examining the nature of the changes affecting middle management jobs and careers and middle managers' reactions to such changes. Specifically, the study sought to examine the nature of the changes affecting middle management jobs and careers and middle managers' reactions to these changes in six countries: U.K., Germany, Italy, France, Denmark, and The Netherlands. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Use transnational teams to globalize your company

The authors report on their two-year study of successful transnational teams, in which they examined how such teams are designed and managed to help their firms pursue global business strategies. Based on this study, they present a comprehensive model of team effectiveness that includes the key characteristics differentiating a transnational team from other types of work teams. The model shows how transnational teams operate—how they are staffed and led, communicate across great distances, and cope with cross-cultural issues. In closing, they describe how a company's human resources department can help an “international” or “multinational” team become a “transnational” team—one that has successfully transcended the cultural, geographic, and managerial barriers to team effectiveness.     

Private business sales environments in the United Kingdom

When an owner-manager of a business firm decides to sell the company, it is not a trivial decision. Whether it is a sale forced by circumstances outside company control, or a positive, strategic choice, it is certainly significant. Moreover, the method of “exit,” the advice taken, and the deal that is eventually struck will clearly affect the nature of the owner's eventual lifestyle. In such circumstances, there are four choices open to the owner: (1) Sale to a third party; (2) Sale to the management and/or employees; (3) Public quotation on the Stock Exchange; (4) Liquidation.This research first analyzes the magnitude of activity in the United Kingdom in each of the above categories during the five-year period 1983–1987. The results show very clearly that there is a strategic loosening taking place in the corporate marketplace—more firms are being sold, and more owner-managers are choosing to exit from ownership of their firms. Moreover, the most frequently used exit route by far is that of the private advertized sale.The second part of this paper analyzes in detail the data for the private advertized sale. By means of principal-component analysis and cluster analysis seven, ecological incubator environments were constructed at a county level. Significant differences were observed between the environments in respect to private advertized sales, private advertized sales rates, and industrial structure. These results show clearly that the nature of the supply of owner-managers wishing to realize their ownership is geographically biased and is, in part, a reflection of the existing industrial and commercial base.     

The role of new firms: Births,deaths and job generation

The contribution of both new and small firms towards economic recovery is now universally accepted as significant. What is still unclear, however, is the extent of that contribution, particularly with regard to the new firm. Despite this, governments at all levels, federal, state and county, have designed strategies for fostering entrepreneurial activity. With little specific knowledge of the target population, these strategies have been either general in nature or based on economic theory, and, as a consequence, little is known about whether they have been effective in affecting the natural process, and in what geographic locations. This research studied the whole population of new firms started in St. Joseph County, Indiana, between 1977 and 1982. It was concerned with both birth and death patterns, and the net jobs generated. The results confirmed the general findings of others that new firms play a significant role in job generation. Over the period, the number of jobs created by a new firm was a consistent 2.9 per cent of the total number of jobs in the industrial sectors studied. Moreover, this exceeded the 1.75 per cent of jobs lost through firms withdrawing from the labour market. Within this, activity in both firms and jobs was found to be centred in only a few SIC categories, and the results of this research suggest that simple tests of volatility and gain will help to focus strategic plans for aid on those sectors where the natural process is already generating the most new jobs.     

Ostracizing sources avoid communal tastes: Effect of ostracizing behaviour on extraordinary consumption

Although people often exclude others in their daily encounters and social media interactions, no consumer research on ostracism has solely focused on sources of ostracism. We argue that the influence of ostracism on evasive behaviour is worth investigating since the scant academic investigations on sources are limited to their reparation intentions for their harmful behaviour. Three experiments were conducted to examine the influence of ostracizing behaviour (vs. neutral vs. social interaction) on extraordinary consumption in face-to-face and social media contexts. It was uncovered that sources sense dissonant feelings in dissimilar contexts when their behaviour transcends society's normative boundaries and, hence, prefer consumption that does not commonly appear in society as a means to evade this dissonance. The effect was moderated by sources' justification of their behaviour. We initiate consumer research on sources of ostracism and contribute to the marketing practice of introducing extraordinary consumption options by investigating the psychological consequences of ostracizing behaviour.     

Small business— small minded? Training attitudes and needs of the tourism and hospitality industry

The Australian tourism and hospitality industry consists of at least 80% small business operators scattered over a wide range of urban and rural environments, consequently it has not been easy for training providers to assess accurately the needs of the industry as a whole and provide specialised programmes. During 1996, Tourism Training Victoria conducted a survey of training needs of tourism and hospitality operators. Results indicate that there is a shortage of skilled staff and owner‐managers with little management training or qualifications, who nonetheless recognise their shortcomings and needs for further education and training, particularly in the marketing and business areas. Barriers to further training include the cost of training and inflexibility of hours and place of delivery. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Developing pre-service primary teachers’ understanding of engineering through engineering habits of mind and engagement with engineers

International Journal of Technology and Design Education - This paper explores how primary teachers might be prepared through their pre-service training to feel more confident to include...