The power of collective ambition

In the past few years, some companies have not just weathered the economic storm: They've emerged stronger than ever. How did such players as Four Seasons, Sephora, and Standard Chartered Bank defy conventional logic? Instead of pursuing a single ambition, such as profits, employees defined a collective ambition. As a result, those organizations deepened their engagement with employees and other stakeholders and became sustainably profitable. Purpose, a company's reason for existence, is the central element of collective ambition. The other elements--vision, targets and milestones, strategic and operational priorities, brand promise, core values, and leader behaviors--must be aligned to serve the company's purpose. Articulating the elements of collective ambition can give everyone in the organization a better sense of the company's purpose and how they can contribute to it. Purpose does not have to be about saving the world; providing excellent entertainment or banking services is just as meaningful a purpose as improving health care in emerging economies--as long as it is an authentic representation of why the company exists. To shape and then achieve a collective ambition, companies must strengthen their organizational glue (the collaborative engagement that creates a unified culture) and grease (the disciplined execution that enterprisewide change initiatives require).     

The effect of public sector employment on the earnings of white and African American males: A sample selectivity approach

This research note uses a sample selection model to measure the earnings premium (or penalty) to public sector employment. A model correcting for both labor force participation and sectoral choice is estimated for both white and African American males. Results indicate that African American males are no better off in the public than in the private sector. Moreover, white males employed in the public sector earn significantly less than their private sector counterparts.     

Strategies for antiracist representation: ethnic tourism guides in Chicago

Researchers often frame tour guides in narrow and agency-revoking ways and theorize an ethnic tourism industry in which marginalized racial/ethnic communities are represented as the Other. In this research, I argue that tour guides in Chicago's urban ethnic neighborhoods resist some of the prevailing racialized constructions of their communities by employing strategies of antiracist representation. As ‘representational strategists’, tour guides use ethnic tourism to develop strategies that put forward alternative – even antiracist – representations of marginalized communities. Through a Chicago tourism project, guides construct representations of their communities that (1) invert the relationship of the host community and visitors by constructing the tourists as the Other; (2) articulate a social history of oppression and resistance; (3) expose the community's social problems such as gentrification, and identify their structural causes; and (4) connect the shared experiences between communities of color. These representational strategies defy the normalized practices of ethnic tourism, as well as the mechanisms of racism, and can be important tools in resisting ideological constructions that perpetuate inequality. They attest to the ways marginalized groups can use representation as an important tool in struggles to define themselves, resist silencing and invisibilization, and challenge some of the assumptions and practices that reproduce their marginalization.     

Responsibilities,recession and the tourism sector: perspectives on CSR among low-fares airlines during the economic downturn in the UK

Responsibility has featured prominently in recent discussions about tourism governance. Nevertheless, research into corporate social responsibility (CSR) among travel and tourism businesses is at a relatively early stage. This paper reports on external stakeholders' perceptions of CSR among low-fares airlines (LFAs) in peripheral regions of the UK in late 2008; that is, during the current global economic downturn. LFAs, their business plans and their ability to contribute towards sustainable development have been the source of much public discourse and media scrutiny in the last decade. This paper does not set out to reopen that debate per se. Rather, it contributes to a deeper understanding of CSR in the tourism sector by arguing for a more nuanced approach to external stakeholders, one which is also informed by primary empirical research from qualitative sources, and which is conceptually informed by the latest thinking from other sectors of economic activity. Important inter-regional variations exist in external stakeholders' perceptions and valorisations of CSR, they are context-specific, and they are not static as their responses to the recent downturn reveal.     

Decisive mechanism of organizational citizenship behavior in the hotel industry – An application of economic game theory

This paper applies an economic game theory model to explain the decisive mechanism of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). The Sub-game Perfect Nash Equilibrium (SPNE) indicates that an employee's unique motivation of OCB is to maximize his or her own performance outcome. The findings also suggest that workload, importance of work to performance outcomes and cost of OCB jointly determine the amount of OCB that each individual employee exhibits. An empirical test utilizing frontline hotel employees was performed (N = 175). Using a partial related test and logistical model, the results supported three propositions, suggesting that the amount of OCB exhibited by each employee is jointly influenced by the workload, cost of OCBs and OCBs performed by coworkers.     

How sustainable is sustainable hospitality research? A review of sustainable restaurant literature from 1991 to 2015

This research was designed to evaluate our current state of knowledge by systematically reviewing tourism and hospitality academic literature concerning sustainability in the restaurant sector by undertaking a systematic review and content analysis. The characteristics of 76 articles are listed in a comprehensive table, presenting research design and research variables, and the articles are examined for their approach to the sustainability concept as applied to the restaurant industry (i.e. the range of responsible practices addressed in each work). The findings indicate that the majority of the literature only engages with parts of sustainability, particularly ecological, rather than holistic sustainability. This matters because it may mean we fail in our attempts to achieve more sustainable restaurant operations.

This research suggests that tourism and hospitality studies need to re-engage with the evolving conceptualisation of sustainability to ensure that best practice responses to changing requirements are undertaken. The narrow focus on ecological aspects of sustainability featuring in restaurants does not acknowledge the full meaning of sustainability and therefore may constrain efforts to secure more sustainable futures. Illuminating such gaps in knowledge is important in order to strengthen our conceptual understandings, refine our practices and thereby secure more sustainable futures through tourism and hospitality.     

British corporate networks, 1976–2010: Extending the study of finance–industry relationships

Abstract

Using an extensive and unique data set that has been created to record the composition of the boards of directors of the top 250 British firms between 1904 and 2010, this article builds upon a previous study by the authors on the corporate network to 1976 by extending the study to 2010. The analysis revolves around three key observations: the nature and depth of the corporate network; the distinct stages in corporate connectivity between 1976 and 2010; and the 1980s watershed in the relationship between financial and other sectors, following which financial institutions withdrew from the corporate network. The article concludes with an analysis of how the data set has changed our perceptions of British corporate networks, wider changes in British business, and a discussion of implications for future research.     

A stable climate or economic growth?

The 2015 UN Paris Agreement reinforced and declared compatible the two goals of avoiding dire climate change and maintaining global economic growth, and it specified that technological innovation is ‘critical’ to this joint achievement. Unfortunately, any confidence that near-term global economic growth is consistent with a stabilized climate is severely undermined by empirical evidence. Despite the rapid increase of alternative energies in recent decades, global GDP growth continues to require burning greater quantities of climate-destabilizing fossil fuels. The dim outlook for sufficiently reducing CO₂ while maintaining economic growth is underscored by global data and Germany specific data on the decoupling of GDP from CO₂. This paper summarizes pertinent climate science, substantiates the dependence of economic growth on fossil fuels, and uses the Kaya identity to demonstrate the unfavorable prospects for reducing CO₂ while maintaining GDP growth.