Standardization of tourism education and training to address the increasing demand for tourism staff in the East Asia/pacific region

Major travel and tourism organizations, including the World Tourism Organization (WTO) and the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), agree that tourism will continue to grow significantly throughout the next two decades, with the most prolific inbound and outbound growth occurring in that part of the world (Northeast and Southeast Asia) from which most East Asian Tourism Forum (EATOF) members are drawn. This paper argues that the limiting factor to successful growth is the availability of sufficient skilled staff, with appropriate technical and interpersonal skills, to enable tourism expansion to proceed without loss of service standards. Properly devised and adequately resourced education and training programmes are essential to provide such skilled staff. This paper will elaborate on some of the tourism growth statistics and related increases in staffing needs, and raise the idea of creating regional standards of education and training. Such regional standards could be used fundamentally to help destinations to ensure the quality of tourism staff. In addition, such regional schemes could be used for marketing purposes, to assure international visitors and travel organizers of the high standards available in those destinations.     

Managing Co-occurring Conflicts in Teams

This study extends prior research on conflict in teams by showing that a team’s chances of appropriately managing one type of conflict depends on what other types of conflicts are co-occurring. We interviewed 44 managers from different industries who had recently participated in a negotiating team, asking about within-team conflicts and how those conflicts were managed. The data showed that task conflict increased the likelihood that teams managed co-occurring procedural conflicts appropriately, but that procedural conflicts decreased the likelihood that teams managed co-occurring task conflicts appropriately. These results explain why some teams fail to realize the theorized benefits of task conflict and why procedural conflict does not always have a deleterious impact on team performance: The co-occurrence of these different types of conflict can alter what strategy a team uses to manage conflicts.     

The impact of problem-based learning strategies on STEM knowledge integration and attitudes: an exploratory study among female Taiwanese senior high school students

This study was designed to explore the effects of problem-based learning (PBL) strategies on the attitudes of female senior high school students toward integrated knowledge learning in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Content analysis and focus group methods were adopted as the research processes. Data and information about the STEM internet platform, an attitude scale and the contents of interviews were also collected for analysis. The subjects were 10th grade students at a girls’ senior high school who volunteered to organize teams for a Solar Electric Trolley Contest. A total of 40 students were grouped into 18 teams. The results of the study indicate: (1) that PBL strategies can be helpful in enhancing students’ attitudes toward STEM learning and the exploration of future career choices; (2) that the PBL teaching strategy helped to lead students step by step toward completing the contest’s mission and to experience the meaning of integrated STEM knowledge; (3) that not only that students can actively apply engineering and science knowledge, but also that students tend to gain more solid science and mathematics knowledge through STEM learning in PBL; and (4) that PBL can enhance students’ abilities and provide them experiences related to knowledge integration and application. Therefore, it is recommended that the curriculum at the girls’ senior high school include more content related to specialty subjects to enhance their technological capabilities. In addition, a learning mechanism should be offered to aid advisers or teachers in strengthening students’ integrated and systematic knowledge about STEM.     

Patents,imitation and welfare

We consider the effects of product and process patents on profits and welfare. In a duopoly model, we show that if the cost of imitation is not very large, prisoner's dilemma occurs under process patent, thus creating lower profit of each firm under process patent than under product patent. Welfare is higher under process (product) patent for very small (not very small) cost of imitation. Although the possibility of cross-licensing never makes lower welfare under process patent for all costs of imitation, welfare is never lower under product patent under infinitely repeated game.     

The Joint Estimation of Child Participation in Schooling and Employment: Comparative Evidence from Three Continents

This paper uses data from Peru, Pakistan and Ghana to analyse simultaneously child labour and child schooling, and compares them between these countries. We use a multinomial logit estimation procedure that analyses the participation and non-participation of children in schooling and in employment and, in particular, allows the possibility that a child combines schooling with employment or does neither. We also use an ordered probit estimation procedure based on a ranking of the various child schooling/employment/non-schooling/non-employment outcomes. The results point to both similarities and striking dissimilarities in the nature of child labour and child schooling between the chosen countries. For example, in Pakistan, but not in Peru, the girl child's ordering of schooling/employment outcomes shows her at a position of extreme disadvantage. Household poverty discourages a child from achieving superior outcomes, but the effect varies markedly across the three countries.     

Corporate social responsibility performance and information asymmetry

Using Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) performance scores from KLD STAT, we investigate whether CSR performance affects information asymmetry. We find that both positive and negative CSR performance reduce information asymmetry. Moreover, we find that the influence of negative CSR performance is much stronger than that of positive CSR performance in reducing information asymmetry. We also investigate the effect of informed investors on the CSR performance-asymmetry relation. We find that the negative association between CSR performance and bid-ask spread decreases for firms with a high level of institutional investors compared to those with a low level of institutional investors. This finding suggests that informed investors may exploit their CSR information advantage. Overall, our results suggest that CSR performance plays a positive role for investors by reducing information asymmetry and that regulatory action may be appropriate to mitigate the adverse selection problem faced by less-informed investors.     

Using profit sharing to enhance employee attitudes: A longitudinal examination of the effects on trust and commitment

The ability of profit sharing to increase organizational performance via positive changes in employee attitudes has yielded mixed results. Drawing on principal agent, expectancy, and organizational justice theories, we assess how perceptions of profit sharing (capacity for individual contribution and organizational reciprocity) alter organizational commitment and trust in management using longitudinal data provided by 141 engineering employees. Favorable perceptions of profit sharing served to increase organizational commitment while only organizational reciprocity predicted trust in management. The relationship between organizational reciprocity and commitment was partially mediated by trust in management. Implications for the design of profit sharing initiatives are noted. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Reviews

UNITARY AUTHORITIES.

Coopers & Lybrand Deloitte, 1992: Partnership in Prosperity: local government's role in economic development. Association of County Councils: The review of local government — Paper No 6 (February).

THE NISSAN ENIGMA.

Garrahan, P. and Stewart, P. 1992: The Nissan Enigma: Flexibility at Work in a Local Economy. London: Mansell, £35.00 cloth, £12.99 paper.

THE INTELLIGENT REGION.

Cooke, P. and Morgan, K. 1991: The Intelligent Region: Industrial and Institutional Innovation in Emilia-Romagna. Cardiff: Regional Industrial Research, Report 7, PO Box 906, Cardiff CF1 3YN.

STRENGTHENING BRITAIN'S TECHNOLOGICAL PERFORMANCE.

Brunskill, 1.1992: Making It: A Federal approach to industrial policy. London: Institute for Public Policy Research, £10.00 paper.

INVISIBLE MINORITIES.

Wrench, J., Brar, H. and Martin, P. 1991: Invisible Minorities: The employment experiences and needs of black and ethnic communities in Harlow. University of Warwick: Centre for research in Ethnic Relations. Available from Harlow District Council.

RURAL RESTRUCTURING.

Gilg, A.W. (ed), 1992: Restructuring the Countryside: Environmental Policy and Practice, Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Ltd, £32.50 cloth.     

Clustering and the R&D management of high-technology small firms: in theory and practice

Much of the policy assistance for high-technology small firms (HTSFs) over recent years has been directed at encouraging their research and development (R&D) collaboration through local networking and technology transfer. Following a consideration of why HTSFs are formed, and how they perform R&D in order to cope with the competitive environment, this paper explores the value of external collaborative R&D to internal R&D management, inside geographically concentrated incubators, science parks or clusters. It is concluded that, although R&D collaboration with external partners occurs in limited instances, much HTSF R&D is highly confidential, competitive and wholly internalised. This tendency, as far as it relates to R&D management, is significant in that it minimises the likelihood that local management collaboration between co-located firms will improve the performance of R&D projects.