Towards understanding and resolving the conflict related to the Eastern Imperial Eagle (Aquila heliaca) conservation with participatory management planning

Conflicts often arise in relation to the conservation of protected predator species. If stakeholders are well defined and involved in participatory processes, their views and perceptions can be incorporated and steps can be made towards resolving such conflicts. In this paper, a case from Hungary is presented. In this case, a participatory management planning process was initiated in the Jászság Special Protection Area of European importance (SPA), within the frame of a LIFE+ project focusing on the conservation of the Eastern Imperial Eagle (Aquila heliaca). It provided a good opportunity to address a complex conflict situation between nature conservationists, game managers and farmers. We identified structural conflicts such as contradictions between direct agricultural payments and nature conservation goals, conflicts related to different views of the main influencing factors, relational problems between various stakeholders, and even differences in value orientation. The participatory management planning process was successful in clarifying the conflict situation and making productive steps toward a common understanding and resolution. Besides the mutually agreed conservation measures, the establishment of an administrative and financial incentive such as the high nature value area (HNVA) scheme proved to be an especially important factor for mitigating the conflict. It also contributed to a more successful realisation of nature conservation objectives in an area dominated by private land owners. However, continued interaction and cooperation are needed to stabilise this progress. Our paper also shows that stakeholder involvement in conservation management planning can transcend the strategic dimension of participation, and address broader common values besides the interests of land user groups.     

The Dynamic ‘Diamond’: A Technological Innovation Perspective

A firm's local environment can constitute a source of national or regional cornpetitive advantage. An important question, therefore, is how these environments come about and how they can be lost. In this paper, we argue that a local environment is a function of the process of technological evolution. It is a function of how certain initial and prevailing conditions, the type of innovation, and chance events, influence the processes of uncertainty resolution, capabilities building, and survivor selection that are characteristic of technological evolution. We also argue that a region can lose its advantage when a dominant design emerges or when a technological discontinuity obsoletes the localized technological capabilities of not only manufacturers, but also of their suppliers, customers and related industries. The environment is dynamic as firms and nations, in response to their performances, also influence it by changing their strategies or policies.     

民行检察工作中检察机关化解社会矛盾能力的新举措

随着社会主义和谐社会的建设和司法制度的改革,各种矛盾逐渐凸显,且矛盾纠纷表现出一些新的特点,作为民行检察部门,不仅要实现法律监督的职能,更应在实施法律监督过程中为化解社会矛盾,促进经济发展和社会稳定发挥积极作用。改变只有＂抗诉＂才能化解社会矛盾的狭隘观点,把执法办案同化解矛盾纠纷相结合,着眼社会稳定和社会和谐,在构建预防和化解社会矛盾体系建设中发挥积极作用。     

安置留地法律纠纷预防化解探析

目前对被征地农民的主要安置形式停留于货币安置、保险安置,留地安置尚未发挥其应有的作用。本文以安置留地的法律属性作为切入点,根据不同形式的留地安置方式引发的法律纠纷形式,进行逐一分析。在现有法律框架和政策情况下,如何预防、化解各项冲突和矛盾,就不同留地安置类型,探讨纠纷处理的规则。通过立法的形式对政府实施留地安置的行为加以规范,在法律法规的层面确立留地安置制度,并作出明确统一的规定,以切实发挥留地安置的作用。     

A Confucian perspective on conflict resolution

Chinese business managers, in general, have been portrayed as valuing harmony and peace and having a tendency to avoid confrontation for fear of disturbing relationships involving mutual dependence. This is held to be a reflection of traditional Confucian cultural values.

This paper is an exploratory study which attempts to establish the relationship between the traditional, Confucian cultural values and the modes of conflict resolution preferred by Chinese business managers. The Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument was employed in this study to describe the preferred conflict resolution modes of Chinese business managers. The results show that compromising tend to be the most preferred conflict resolution mode of Chinese business managers because of the latter's predominantly humanistic, Confucian self-concept.

However, other modes, that is, collaborating, competing, avoiding and accommodating, are also being employed by Chinese business managers as a strategic and political variation of that Confucian self-concept.     

危机事件对张家界旅游影响评价——基于本底线模型的高分辨率分析

根据张家界2001—2011年旅游统计数据,建立入境旅游客流量及旅游外汇收入、国内旅游客流量及旅游收入四条本底趋势线,引入月指数的概念,基于本底线模型的高分辨率分析危机事件对张家界旅游的影响。研究表明,旅游业既是一个敏感性产业,又是一个自我恢复力强的产业,在危机之后往往能强力反弹,旅游本底趋势线作为旅游业发展的生命线,始终能够把危机形成的凹型谷吸引回来。研究认为,张家界作为国内外知名品牌景区,具有抗周期性和后危机反弹的特征,尤其是国内旅游具有更强的抗周期性和后危机反弹能力,而入境旅游相对更脆弱。此外,作为国际性危机事件,"SARS"和"国际金融危机"对张家界旅游影响较大,周期较长;而"自然灾害"对张家界旅游影响相对较小。研究成果为张家界建立危机预警系统和管理体制提供了科学依据。     

The Effects of Mandatory Arbitration of Employment Discrimination Claims: Perceptions of Justice and Suggestions for Change

The ability of employers to require employees to submit claims of discrimination to final and binding arbitration in lieu of exercising their statutory rights represents a significant change in public policy. The methods traditionally used by enforcing agencies to investigate discrimination claims provide assistance and intervention that redress power asymmetries between employees and employers. Depriving employees of these enforcement mechanisms and requiring them to use arbitration may have adverse effects on perceptions of justice, both in procedural and distributive terms. We propose that mutuality, equality, and remediality are issues that must be addressed in situations of mandatory arbitration. We also suggest that mandatory arbitration may have other effects including expanding the scope of issues well beyond discrimination claims.     

Determinant Factors and Choice Intention for Chinese Restaurant Dining

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to identify important selection attributes for customers dining at Chinese restaurants in the state of Indiana, and the determinant and predicting factors in customers' intentions to return. A closed-ended questionnaire was used, and a systematic sampling approach was employed to survey a sample of customers in three Chinese restaurants in Indiana. The data were analyzed using factor and multiple regression analysis. A four-dimensional structure was established from 14 selection attributes. The results of the study indicated four dimensions that were significantly related to the likelihood of customers returning to the same restaurants, as follows: “Food and Environment,” “Service and Courtesy,” “Price and Value,” and “Location, and Advertising and Promotion.”     

Intercultural Discourse Ethics: Testing Trompenaars' and Hampden-Turner's Conclusions about Americans and the French

Are culture driven ethical conflicts apparent in the discourse of the protagonists? A multi-year, multi-cultural study of managers by Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner resulted in two conclusions relevant to business ethics. The first is that intercultural business conflicts can often be traced to a finite set of cultural differences. The second is that enough similarities exist between cultures to provide the grounds for conflict resolution. The research reported here gives credence to their study when applied to an ethical conflict viewed from French and American perspectives.     

Dispute resolution and litigation in the construction industry. Evidence on conflicts and conflict resolution in The Netherlands and Germany

The construction industry is regarded to be a tough and competitive business characterized by short-term and opportunistic relations rather than being based on cooperative partnerships. In particular, conflicts and litigation have been claimed to proliferate in the construction industry. Upon closer inspection of the literature, it seems that the empirical basis of these claims is largely circumstantial. Using data on contractor–subcontractor relations in the construction industry in The Netherlands, we consider the extent to which litigation in construction is common. Then we compare the results to similar data sets on IT-purchasing both in The Netherlands and Germany, and to a data set with more general business-to-business transactions of larger Dutch and German firms. We find some evidence that the construction industry has higher percentages of transactions leading to either arbitration, suspension of the relation, or legal steps (1.6% versus 1.2, 0.4 and 0.6). The differences are however not as extreme as one might conclude based on superficial reading of the popular and scientific literature, and certainly not bigger than the differences between the other data sets.