The Conduct of Management and the Management of Conduct: Contemporary Managerial Discourse and the Constitution of the ‘Competent’ Manager*

The character and conduct of the manager has formed a central focus of attempts to govern economic life throughout the present century. and current programmes of organizational change involve radical attempts to reconstitute the nature and conduct of management. This is attempted through the identification and implementation of management competencies. Discourses of organizational reform such as human resource management, total quality management and business process re-engineering all place a critical emphasis on anti-bureaucratic, organic and flexible forms of organization, which are also seen to require the development of particular capacities and predispositions among managers. Essential to their vision of ‘managerial work’ is a composite of ‘entrepreneurial’ attributes. Management competencies appear to offer a congenial method for the reconstitution of the manager along ‘entrepreneurial’ lines, not simply because they are inherently founded on managers'self-management and self-presentation of identified behaviours, but also because they represent individualized forms of business functions (and are often associated with the establishment of market relations within the organization).     

New forms of employment relations in the public services: the limits of strategic choice

Drawing on a strategic choice model, this article examines the extent to which public service organisations have used their newly established employment relations discretion. Constrained by external pressures and upstream decisions on purpose and structure, the exercise of genuine choice is seen to vary between organisations and according to the nature of the issue.     

A lifestyle analysis of female consumers in greater China

This study compares the lifestyles of female consumers in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China, which together make up Greater China. The investigation revealed that significant differences exist among the three groups of female consumers in nine different areas. These are (a) women's role and perception, (b) family orientation, (c) home cleanliness, (d) brand consciousness, (e) price consciousness, (f) self-confidence, (g) addiction to work, (h) health consciousness, and (i) environmental consciousness. Although the women studied in the three groups were found to be heavily influenced by Confucianism, they were also affected by western culture to varying degrees. Thus, the three groups were found to have a mixture of traditional and modern values. Hong Kong women were found to favor a more modern view of the role of women than their counterparts in China and Taiwan. However, women in China, especially the younger ones, were quickly adopting new values and Western ideas. The authors foresee that female consumers in Greater China will become increasingly similar in their lifestyles in the near future. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Participant crowding and physical contact rates of whale shark tours on Isla Holbox,Mexico

Whale shark tourism is a growing niche market within the marine wildlife tourism sector. Increased visitation and declining whale shark numbers at some tourism sites worldwide raise questions over the long-term sustainability of this industry. This study examines the social and potential biological impacts of “swim-with” whale shark tourism on Isla Holbox, Mexico. A total of 397 tour participants completed a self-administered questionnaire regarding perceived crowding, reported encounters and encounter norms, as well as self-reported physical contact rates with whale sharks. Relatively high physical contact rates suggest that tourism may cause some harm to sharks. Users who encountered more swimmers than their norm felt significantly more crowded and were more likely to perceive the industry as having a negative impact on the sharks and surrounding environment. However, the results suggest that the number of boats in the whale shark viewing area may have a greater influence on crowding than number of swimmers. Management interventions to improve the sustainability of the industry include improved interpretation and guide intervention, achieving higher compliance with existing guidelines, and limiting the number of boats allowed in the whale shark viewing area.     

Redundancies in Chinese State Enterprises: A Research Report

This article examines how the problem of surplus labor isbeing dealt with in some of China's state-owned enterprises. Primarily using interview data from the period 1995-1997, as well as published sources, the article looks at the main methods employed by large state-owned enterprises to reduce the level of surplus labor in their workforce. It also considers how smaller state-owned enterprises are coping in an era where mergers, closures, and bankruptcies are becoming much more common as a means of dealing with loss-making firms, resulting in widespread redundancies in the state-owned enterpriseworkforce. The article illustrates that the potential political repercussions of job losses, as well as direct intervention by local authorities, continue to hinder the freedom of enterprise management to adjust employment levels in the interests of efficiency and productivity. The article also notes the importance of how decisions about downsizing and redundancy are communicated and justified to employees if resistance and social instability are to be minimized. The employment treatment of production workers will be considered separately from that of cadres, since these two groups are subject to different employment regulations and political constraints.