Transferring and Transforming Technology Education: A Study of Norwegian Teachers’ Perceptions of Ideas from Design & Technology

What happens when educational ideas cross national and cultural borders? How do teachers respond to ideas originating in a different school system and a different national culture? This article reports on an empirical study investigating the transfer of ideas from Design &; Technology as a subject in England and Wales into Norwegian schools. A sample of teachers participating in a specific project on technology teaching inspired by this subject has been studied by means of interviews and classroom observation. Results of the study show that while some elements of Design &; Technology are adopted by the teachers, essential ideas of the subject are significantly transformed. Drawing on Barnes, (1992, Teachers and Teaching: From Classrooms to Reflection (pp. 9–32), The Falmer press, London) concept of teachers' professional frames for teaching, it is shown how specific aspects of the national and educational culture have had a considerable effect on?the teachers' interpretation of the nature of technology as a subject of teaching and its place in the curriculum. The study illustrates the importance of the cultural context in how educational ideas are interpreted, reshaped and realized in schools.     

National culture and R&D and marketing integration mechanisms in new product development: A cross-cultural study between Singapore and New Zealand

The integration of R&D and marketing in new product development (NPD) is an important contributor to NPD performance. Of the mechanisms developed to aid functional integration, many have been developed in western cultural environments and may not have applicability in other national cultural settings. Using a sample of NPD workgroup personnel in New Zealand (NZ), the western cultural environment, and Singapore, quantitative and qualitative data have been used to measure national culture and determine the applicability of different organization integration mechanisms. Results show key differences between the two samples, indicating a link between formalization, centralization, role flexibility and interfunctional climate mechanisms with the Hofstede dimensions of Power Distance, Masculinity and Uncertainty Avoidance of national culture. Managerial implications are that national cultural values and settings of the respondents are important when determining best integration mechanisms.     

建筑企业扁平化开放式现代管理模式研究

当代管理的一个重要特点是创新，为了实现创新建筑企业需要一个适应时代特点的全新企业化，即开放平等的气氛、高效的企业组织结构和团结协作的企业化，形成一个新的扁平化开放式现代管理模式。对传统管理模式和现代管理模式进行了比较。建筑企业采用扁平化开放式现代管理模式，企业效益必将得到极大地提高。     

执行 执行力 执行文化——关于国有企业执行力的思考

阐述了执行、执行力、执行文化的内涵,分析了国有企业执行力的状况,并提出了打造执行文化要重点抓好三个方面的工作问题.     

Bank CEO materialism: Risk controls,culture and tail risk

We investigate how the prevalence of materialistic bank CEOs has evolved over time, and how risk management policies, non-CEO executives’ behavior and tail risk vary with CEO materialism. We document that the proportion of banks run by materialistic CEOs increased significantly from 1994 to 2004, that the strength of risk management functions is significantly lower for banks with materialistic CEOs, and that non-CEO executives in banks with materialistic CEOs insider trade more aggressively around government intervention during the financial crisis. Finally, we find that banks with materialistic CEOs have significantly more downside tail risk relative to banks with non-materialistic CEOs.     

Measuring and improving safety culture in organisations: an exploration of tools developed and used in Belgium

To support organisations in addressing their safety culture, practical tools have been developed worldwide. Based on such practical tools, it is possible to measure where an organisation is situated regarding its safety culture in order to identify priority areas, formulate appropriate improvement strategies and determine changes over time. In this paper, it is examined which practical tools to measure and improve safety culture are provided on the Belgian market. In total, 15 Belgian tools were identified, of which 8 agreed to cooperate. Amongst the included tools, there is a lot of variation regarding the methods to diagnose the safety culture and the overall procedure to improve the safety culture. The importance to adapt the tool to the specific needs and context of organisations is acknowledged in most of the tools, as well as the importance to use a multi-method approach to measure the safety culture. Also, it is recognised that all hierarchic levels should participate during the process of diagnosing the safety culture. A point of attention is this overall participation during the validation of the results of the diagnosis, and the priority setting of the recommendations, which is mainly done by the higher management. The development of the Belgian tools is based on experience with a focus on direct practical application, which leads to the fact that none of the tools are validated through scientific evidence. Another point of attention is that organisations pay too little attention at the continuity of safety culture research. And finally, the question can be raised if the safety culture tools actually address the concept ‘safety culture’, or if they address only a subset of the concept. When safety culture is addressed, a comprehensive approach should be used, where technological, organisational, human and external aspects are taken into account as interacting and interrelating elements.     

Can employee ownership and human resource management policies clash in worker cooperatives? Lessons from a defunct cooperative

The article analyzes the interaction between employee ownership, HRM policies and practices, and HRM outcomes in what was the world's biggest industrial worker cooperative for decades, and now defunct, Fagor Electrodomésticos. Using longitudinal internal data and detailed interviews with key stakeholders, this paper sheds light on how employee ownership conditioned HRM policies. HRM outcomes—such as job satisfaction and absenteeism—are also analyzed over a long period of time. Chronic nepotism when recruiting new members, failures in the training policy, impoverished and Taylorist working systems, and reverse dominance hierarchies are analyzed as factors that increased free riding and caused low satisfaction and the disengagement of working members. This case study contributes to the literature on HRM and worker cooperatives as it provides some insights that are rarely found in that literature. It also provides guidance to worker cooperatives about increasing the fit between employee ownership and HRM policies and outcomes.     

旅游开发对民族传统文化的本质性影响

民族传统文化的变迁是一个不以人的意志为转移的、客观的历史过程,传统文化得以传承的前提条件取决于其在当下的"有用性".对这种"有用性"的最终评估并不来自研究者或政府官员,而只能来自居于该民族传统"主位"(emic)的文化持有者的认知.换言之,传统文化是不能被处于"客位"(etic)的人的"理性"行动保护下来的,文化传承的内源性动力只能源于居于该种传统文化"主位"的它的持有者群体的"文化自觉",而这种"文化自觉"正是对其传统文化有用性的一种界定和回应.从这一点出发,研究者能做的是为"主位"者提供智力支持,政府要做的是为"主位者"提供财政支持和制度保障.     

传媒的发展和大众文化研究及其前瞻

本文认为,网络时代大众文化的研究趋向重点应该有三个方面:第一,网络赋予了大众文化不同的特征,使它在内涵和技术特征上发生了变化.大众文化研究有必要对这些变化在理论上进行分析和批判;第二,对网络时代大众文化诸多现象的批评;第三,加强网络时代大众文化的引导问题的研究.     

大学校园文化建设:基于和谐视野

在社会主义和谐社会的建设中,在高等教育日趋国际化,高校生存环境发生巨大变化的全新竞争氛围下,我们应该创建以学术文化建设为核心的和谐校园文化,自觉地适应社会经济和高等教育发展趋势.提倡学术自由,尊崇学生个性,追求真理,培育新的思想观念,建立新的人才培养、科学研究和社会服务机制,增强活力,促进大学的可持续发展和社会的和谐共进.