Working musicians: exploring the rhetorical ties between musical labour and leisure

This essay explores the implications of a common but rarely examined trope about music, leisure and labour. The idea that music should appear effortless – that its execution should not require work – has shaped critical and consumer interpretation in a wide variety of historical settings. The trope of effortless music suggests that music is an outgrowth of one’s individual genius, heritage or social identity rather than a product of one’s labour. Close attention to the work involved in learning and performing music can expand our understanding of the multiple ways in which music creates value, and the historical ways in which the dialectic between conception and execution in modern capitalism have paralleled the distinctions between composition and performance in the Western music scholarship. Two historical case studies from the late nineteenth and early twentieth‐century US provide the evidence for my argument. I examine the overlapping discourses of musical effort and work in the world of female parlour pianists in the middle‐class home and among academic folksong collectors and some of the southern musicians whom they courted as informants. I conclude by suggesting what music history might look like if we chose to place the work of learning and performing music at the centre of the story.     

Leadership,power and racism: lifeguards’ influences on Aboriginal people’s experiences at a Northern Canadian aquatic facility

Using a Foucauldian and postcolonial lens, this case study examines the ways in which leadership styles used by lifeguards and supported by the structure, rules and regulations at a northern Canadian swimming pool influenced Aboriginal people’s experience of the facility. Participant observation, semi-structured interviews and a focus group were used to identify the ways in which Eurocentric lifeguard training, exercises of power, institutional racism and an absence of cultural competency can intersect to influence Aboriginal people’s use of a local pool and their considerations of lifeguarding as a potential employment opportunity. On the basis of these findings, the study suggests that the development and implementation of anti-discriminatory policies and procedures for swimming pools and the inclusion of cultural competency teachings in lifeguard training are necessary measures to enhance Aboriginal people’s experiences at northern swimming pools, to foster opportunities to become lifeguards and to augment Euro-Canadian lifeguards’ capacity to maintain a safe and welcoming aquatic environment in a cross-cultural context.     

Neoliberalism and work-related risks: individual or collective responsibilization?

Based on a representative sample of the Dutch population (N?=?2467), we test four hypotheses about how utilitarian individualism influences the responsibilization of work-related risks (i.e. the risk of dropping out of work because of unemployment, disability, or sickness). The risk society hypothesis understands utilitarian individualism as a laissez-faire ideological orientation and assumes it to lead to individual responsibilization. The blame culture hypothesis conceives utilitarian individualists as consumer citizens and predicts the reverse – that those concerned expect to be protected by the government. The resentment hypothesis assumes that particularly utilitarian individualists with a vulnerable labor-market position individualize responsibility, because they distrust those who share their fate more than others do. The narcissism hypothesis reverses this logic, because it assumes that utilitarian individualists’ narcissistic self-centeredness entices them to make others responsible for their own risks. The two hypotheses predicting an individualization of work-related risk due to utilitarian individualism are both confirmed, whereas the two hypotheses predicting it to result in their collectivization are both rejected.     

The impact of perceived ethical intensity on audit-quality-threatening behaviours

Although there has been significant interest among researchers in audit-quality-threatening behaviours (QTBs), the decision process through which staff auditors engage in those behaviours has received relatively little attention. It seems likely that the ethical intensity of the behaviours perceived by auditors may play an important role in that process; to date, this has not been tested. This study examines the mediating role of perceived ethical intensity in the relationship between perceived ethical culture of the firm and the auditors' ethical evaluation of, and intention to engage in, three different forms of QTBs. A multi-item measure of ethical intensity is developed and the findings provide the first empirical evidence of a direct relationship between perceived ethical intensity and ethical decision-making regarding QTBs. Moreover, the findings show that perceived ethical intensity fully mediates the relationship between perceived ethical culture and ethical decision-making. Implications of the findings for accounting firms and for researchers are discussed and areas for future research on the mediating role of perceived ethical intensity are suggested in the paper.     

Human approach in the quality management system of manufacturing SMEs in Mexico Theoretical review and proposal of a conceptual model

Currently, globalization and competitiveness exert an enormous pressure on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing sector in Mexico, for that reason they must be more effective and flexible to meet customer demand. In this article, we reviewed the literature on the subject according to the level of significance of variables like human factor, quality culture, quality management system (QMS) and innovation, considered as key elements of a latent competitive scale as from their exploration and explanation. The main objective of this research is to carry out a critical analysis by relating the importance of the human factor of QMS, through research on socio-emotional, intellectual factors and ethics values for achieving the effectiveness of QMS at all organization levels; it also provides a link between variables of quality culture, value propositions, and innovation. Finally, this work discusses the design of a human factor-based quality model to ensure the value propositions for customer and stakeholders’ satisfaction.     

On the determinants of household debt maturity choice

This article jointly analyses a behavioural and a cultural concept to explain household debt portfolio choice. The behavioural approach explores the role of time preferences on household debt maturity in a theoretical model and a numerical analysis. We derive a positive relationship between the long-term discount factor δ and the optimal maturity of household loans. The cultural approach examines whether national culture is a reasonable predictor for household debt maturity. We show that culture is an important factor for households’ borrowing decisions and has even more predictive power than time preferences. Countries with higher scores on the Hofstede dimension of long-term orientation tend to have shorter household debt maturity. Time preferences incur a primarily mediating role, because the effect of national culture on the borrowing decision is reduced, as the long-term discount factor δ increases.     

欧美日企业文化差异及其对地方企业网络发展的影响——以汽车产业为例

首先对比分析欧美与日本的企业文化差异,然后以汽车产业为例,探讨其企业文化差异对上海、广东汽车企业网络的影响,结果表明:欧美企业文化强调个人主义、理性主义和平等观念,而日本则强调集体主义、感性主义和等级观念;因企业文化差异,欧美跨国汽车企业与日本跨国汽车企业相比,中国本土企业进入前者组建的企业网络难度与稳定性要弱于后者,而竞争激烈程度要大于后者,且后者在海外组建地方企业网络相对前者更为迅速;尽管后者比前者对地方企业网络的创新作用要强,技术扩散更为频繁,但这仅限其“封闭的供应商网络”范围内,对中国本土企业的技术封锁更加极端.最后提出其存在的问题及相应对策.     

全球经济危机下闽台文化创意产业合作路径和空间研究

在经济危机背景下,发展闽台文化创意产业对于福建发展战略性新兴产业、转变经济发展方式,带动区域经济发展具有启示意义。福建发展文化创意产业的重点在于闽台文化产业的对接合作。福建省应切实解决好阻碍闽台文化创意产业的市场瓶颈问题以及投资与创新环境问题,为闽台文化创意产业深度合作创造良好条件;充分整合闽台文化资源,挖掘闽台共同的价值;联手加强知识产权保护,构建良好的区域环境;充分发挥地缘优势和两岸和平发展优势,共建文化创意产业的信息平台,走出一条闽台文化创意产业互利双赢、共同发展的新路。     

从企业文化视角再议饭店会计伦理的构建

基于以人为本的根本宗旨、中国特色社会主义经济与社会可持续发展的战略思想、传承中国优秀的历史文化与创新发展的现代文化三个层面相结合,对企业文化建设进行新视角的解读,餐饮企业构建饭店会计伦理,应遵循全局性、客观性、竞争性和效益性的原则,要倡导和贯彻社会主义"荣辱"道德观和核心价值观,大力推进企业文化体制建设,宣传饭店会计伦理建设的先进业绩,积极争取政府有关机构与相关社团机构对会计伦理建设的大力支持。     

企业文化营销的模式研究

企业文化符合商品广义上的概念,具有商品价值二重属性,也具有类似于产品的层次结构。企业文化作为产品的特殊性,是无形的、无价的,具有功能的双重性。企业文化通过文化产品、文化定价、文化渠道和文化促销等模式,创造出差异化的产品,通过产品的价格以广告传播、人员传播和公共关系传播方式,把企业文化通过促销方式营销出去。