Asia Pacific as a research context for organizational learning: background and future directions

The dominant research agenda in the field of organizational learning continues to be driven by Western universalist assumptions. However, Asia provides a fertile setting for challenging such narrow orthodoxy in the field through studies that investigate the influence of local contexts. In this collection, four studies by Asia-based scholars address various facets of organizational learning among indigenous Asian firms. Drawing on diverse theoretical lenses and research methodologies to examine various organizational forms, their insights about the unique patterns and processes of learning among both small and emerging multinational companies from the Asia Pacific serve to rekindle debates about universalism/convergence versus contingency/divergence, and about emic (context-rich, inside-out) versus etic (context-free, outside-in) perspectives.     

漫游人间仙境

让日理万机的高管们，在假期里放松心情的最佳方式是什么？当然是去开曼群岛!因为那里的景物之美，足可以抚平你那因金融危机而感到紧张的心     

Transport safety for older people: A study of their experiences,perceptions and management needs

With evidence of increasing accident risk due to age-related declines in health and cognition affecting driver performance, there is a need for research promoting safe mobility of older people. The present study aimed to identify transport options and licensing issues for a group of older people in an Australian community. Ninety-five participants aged 75 and over were interviewed about their driving status and accident record and tested for cognitive ability. After stratification on cognitive level and driver status (current, ex-driver or non-driver), 30 were selected for further in-depth interviews concerning demographics, licence status and impact of change, travel options available and used, and travel characteristics. Considerable reliance on the motor vehicle as the mode of transport and the decision to cease driving were major quality-of-life issues. There was little evidence of planning and support in making the decision to stop driving. Some differences in transport decisions on the basis of cognitive level were evident; however, people with severely compromised cognitive ability (and, therefore, unable to give informed consent) had been excluded. The study suggested the need for resources to assist older people/carers/health professionals to plan for the transition from driver to non-driver and to manage alternative transport options more effectively.     

LOCAL MUNICIPALITIES AND PROGRESS WITH THE DELIVERY OF BASIC SERVICES IN SOUTH AFRICA

In 1994, South Africa adopted the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) and emphasised the delivery of services to meet basic needs. Since then great strides have been made to redress past social inequalities. However, analysis of these successes have been limited to national or provincial aggregates, when much of the responsibility for meeting the RDP commitment lies at the local government level. The need for closer investigation is nonetheless clear from continuing protests over poor service delivery. This paper aims to shed more light on delivery at a local level by using data from the 2001 Census and 2007 Community Survey. The analysis involves the construction of a service delivery index for each municipality and analysis of variance to explain the changes in service delivery over the period 2001‐2007. The results show that improved service provision may require further urbanisation and densification. Also, local economic growth in itself may not be important, but it would contribute to the ability to pay for services and in that way aid delivery.     

Networks, Knowledge and Power: Decision Making, Politics and the Process of Innovation

This paper examines the highly political nature of innovation appropriation processes. The central focus is on the role of networks, networking, and knowledge in these processes. The data presented is drawn from two case study companies, both of which were implementing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. While formal, hierarchical authority was found to be an important contextual factor, shaping the appropriation processes examined, it was found that such authority was not automatically translatable into actual power. In terms of knowledge and networks, the paper concludes that they were inextricably inter-related, largely because the typically tacit nature of much relevant knowledge required the development of networks to access and utilize it. The paper further concluded that the use of both networks, and knowledge in the innovation appropriation processes examined had a dual character. They could not only provide access to relevant knowledge and artefacts, but could also be used as political tools in support of particular interests.     

Variability Measurements and Choice of Exchange Rate System: Asian Versus industrialized Countries

This paper examines whether the exchange rate movements of six Asian countries and six industrialized countries are normally distributed. This study also uses stochastic dominance to determine whether risk averse investors would prefer the fixed exchange rate system to the floating exchange rate system. Our empirical results show that most exchange rate changes are non-normal stable. Results form the stochastic dominance technique indicate that not all risk averse individuals will necessarily prefer one exchange rate system to the other. [F31]     

African Americans and U.S. Politics: The Gradual Progress of Black Women in Political Representation

This paper argues that since the 1960s, African Americans have substantially increased their political participation in the U.S. political system. It claims that Blacks in the U.S. have built a strong political foundation and that their influence in the country’s political system has grown within the past four decades. The paper highlights, however, that more Black women tend to be active participants in the electoral process than Black men and that there is the potential for Black women to equal or surpass Black men in the number of elected officials within their race in the years and decades to come.

旅游管理专业英语教学优化策略研究——基于澳门科技大学旅游管理专业英语学习行为特征的分析

以人为本的理念和学以致用的理念是教育中的重要思想。对于旅游管理专业的同学而言,了解其需求,并对不同类型学生的英语学习期望、学习特点以及学习方式等进行分析,有助于采用较具有针对性的方法提升学生英语学习的积极性以及成效。文章以澳门科技大学国际旅游管理专业的学生为对象,综合运用了问卷抽样调查以及深度访谈等方法,分别从学生在英语学习方面的行为特征与规律、影响英语学习效果的因素以及教师和业界人士对英语学习的认知等方面进行了分析。最终提出,旅游管理专业的英语教学应该注重业界与高校学生交流,增强其英语学习的主动性;积极创新课堂教学形式,提升课堂英语教学的吸引力;尊重学生英语水平的差异,实施个性化教学与培养;完善校园英语学习环境,渲染浓厚的英语学习氛围。     

Between construction yard and village: Changing relations of caste and hierarchy among Madhya Pradesh's labouring classes

In Madhya Pradesh, India, rural migrant workers hired in flyover's construction yards experiment a space of work where the social practices relating to caste separation and hierarchy are temporally softened. This paper shows that these processes of conviviality, through mixing between castes and trans-communitarian work identities based on the hierarchies of labour, are taking part in the lower classes' long quest for less oppressive labour relations. Starting from the construction yard, and then going to the village, this paper shows that the labour relations involved in the circulation of rural migrants to the flyover construction yards are contributing to shaping their complex and flexible social consciousness in a context of slow reconfiguration of oppressive rural labour relations.