风范自不寻常

人们常说英雄不问出处,而一个投资家的稳健和低调,一定是有出处的。比如,现任信业基金执行总裁的李志坤先生。在对李志坤的采访中,他的言谈举止间透露出一份尊贵的谦逊,这让人在他面前,显得缺少底蕴。借用林语堂所说过的一句话来诠释他:温和、稳重且成熟。这不仅是一个人的性格,也是一个季节的性格。这是庄子所谓的"正得秋而万宝成"!     

The nature of action learning

Action Learning has developed to such an extent that there is now a demand to ‘know’ what it is. There is one way, and one way alone, of getting to ‘know’ what action learning is, and that is by doing it. For those who most clamour to ‘know’ what something might be are usually the victims of an educational system that leaves the vast majority who pass through it ignorant of the meaning of the verb to ‘know’ .... If, for example, I am asked “Do you know that woman?”, it is most probable that the questioner does not ‘know’ what he is asking me. Does he mean “Do I know her name? Or where she lives? Or am I able to introduce him to her? Or what she does for a living? Or do I recognise her by sight? Or have I been to bed with her? And, if so, what progress did I make?...” Thus, with action learning: “Have I read a book about it? Or attended a seminar at which somebody was trying to sell places on an action learning programme? Or visited a set of participants meeting as part of such a programme? Or tried to organise real persons tackling real problems in real time, and trying thereby to learn with and from each other? Or been an active participant myself in such a programme?...” To ‘know’ what action learning is, one must have been responsibly involved in it; since this cannot have been done merely by reading about action learning, it is impossible in this, or any other, note to convey more than the vaguest impression of what this educational approach may be. The day action learning becomes explicable in words alone will be the day to abandon the practice of it.     

Trustees as servant-leaders: A report and reference guide

How have the servant-leader writings of Robert Greenleaf impacted upon society during the past twenty years? What influence has Greenleaf had upon trustees and others? And, what are people sayingtoday about servant-leadership? While this paper seeks to provide a partial answer to these questions, its intent is to serve as an informative report on the ever-widening influence of the servant-as-leader idea—and as a resource guide for others who may wish to delve more deeply into the notion of trustees as servant-leaders. In 1974, Robert Greenleaf publishedTrustees as Servants, in which he expressed his own thoughts concerning the special role which trustees can and should play within an institution—but usually don't. His delineation of some of the barriers and solutions to effective trusteeship has since been read by over 400,000 people and has come to represent a core element of what is now generally called “trustee education.” The central definition of servant-leadership, as defined by Greenleaf inThe Servant as Leader, is as follows: It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant—first to make sure that other people's highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: do those served grow as persons; do they while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society; will they benefit, or at least, not be further deprived? The past two decades have witnessed the publication of a growing number of books and articles concerning servant-leadership and its applications in a number of key areas. This now includes its uses as: a working philosophy and model in both for-profit and not-for-profit institutions; the bringing together of servant-leadership and experiential education in the related area of “service-learning”; the use of servant-leadership within community leadership programs; its use in both formal management/leadership courses and by independent consultants working directly with institutions; as a core idea for several diverse areas of personal growth and personal transformation; and as the values base for trustee education. The attached bibliographies-in-progress are intended to provide suggested readings for those who are interested in finding out more about the role of trustees as servant-leaders.     

Aus Fehlern Iernen

Learning from blunders. Experiences of an executive coach with problems and solutionsNot too often, even rarely, we are in a situation to talk about blunders or shortcomings within our coaching community. That really is a pity, because a discussion like this combined with reflection and feed back is the best and only way for a coach to avoid professional mistakes in his future. So this article is “somehow another kind” of contribution. The author reports his own 18 years of “blunder-experience” as well as professional mistakes of other coaches which he observed in mentor coachings and supervisions, he suggests outcomes, consequences and solutions. Topics are: Anger, aggression and “struggles of power” within the coaching process; dependence versus (internal) independence of a coach; transference and counter-transference within the coaching process; peanut politics within a coaching process. Result: the coach himself, his core values, his boldness directed to social risks and to natural consequences — combined with appreciative conversation and respecting clients — makes out the core dissolving capacity. Without mentor coaching and professional supervision every coach would be trapped into his personal “trap of mistakes” — and even worse: without recognizing this dilemma.     

Balancing Employee Religious Freedom in the Workplace with Customer Rights to a Religion‐free Retail Environment

In October of 2009, Trevor Keezer was terminated by Home Depot for refusing to remove a pin from his uniform declaring “One Nation under God, Indivisible.” Mr. Keezer, a cashier with Home Depot, contended that the button he had worn for over one year before any action was taken by his employer expressed his support for American troops and his Christian faith. Were the actions taken by his employer warranted or was Mr. Keezer the victim of arbitrary religious discrimination unrelated to job performance? Religion is becoming an increasingly polarizing issue in the workplace, forcing retail managers to balance the respective interests of employees, coworkers, and patrons of retail establishments. And from all indications, if legislation pending in Congress is enacted, maintaining the balance will become more problematic.     

Inside the black box: incentive regulation and incentive channeling on energy markets

This paper aims to achieve more insight into the complex interplay between the “external” market regulations and “internal” regulations (corporate governance) of energy firms. In recent years, many countries have deregulated the incumbent energy monopolies and have introduced new modes of regulation. However, the new incentive schemes do not represent an unmitigated success story. A major problem seems to be the neoclassical framework that is used for the analysis of energy markets. Therefore, an important goal of this paper is to clarify the boundaries of neoclassical regulation theory. There are two restrictions that hamper the neoclassical analysis of energy markets. The first is the difficulty of overcoming the widely held “black box” view of firms. The second is the idea that agents always make rational choices. The paper proposes a kind of theoretical division of labor for understanding the effectiveness of regulatory schemes in energy markets. Neoclassical economics points out to the sources of market failure, and helps to identify where in particular on the supply chain one is likely to observe natural monopolies. Transaction cost economics explains appropriate governance of vertical relations along the supply chain. And organizational theories can elucidate what happens within firms: their response to regulation, competition, and relations with suppliers. A research agenda for the third component is proposed, drawing on insights from New Sociological Institutionalism and organizational behavior.     

The Event: An Underexamined Risk Concept

Some of the terms used in risk assessment and management are poorly and even contradictorily defined. One such term is “event,” which arguably describes the most basic of all risk‐related concepts. The author cites two contemporary textbook interpretations of “event” that he contends are incorrect and misleading. He then examines the concept of an event in A. N. Kolmogorov's probability axioms and in several more‐current textbooks. Those concepts are found to be too narrow for risk assessments and inconsistent with the actual usage of “event” by risk analysts. The author goes on to define and advocate linguistic definitions of events (as opposed to mathematical definitions)—definitions constructed from natural language. He argues that they should be recognized for what they are: the de facto primary method of defining events.     

The Social Responsibility of Managers: Reassessing and Integrating Diverse Perspectives

The social responsibility of business has been a prominent issue in the academic and practitioner literatures, as well as in the curricula of business schools, for many years. While Friedman's iconic defense of profit maximization as the responsibility of management has been widely and extensively assailed, emerging positions on the role of business in society offer little clear and practical guidance to current managers, as well as Masters of Business Administration students. I argue in this article that the focus of the debate should shift to considering how the rules of the game surrounding business' behavior should be formulated and what the role of socially responsible managers should be in helping to establish those rules. My contention is that the goal of society should be to strengthen the linkage between the achievement of social objectives and profit maximization by business through “bright line” regulations and laws. Socially responsible managers will participate in setting the rules of the game by advising policymakers on how specific regulations and laws can be structured so that they most effectively condition the linkage between social objectives and profit maximization. If there is a unique social responsibility of managers beyond profit maximization, it is to participate in the policymaking process “honestly,” that is, without attempting to game the system through guile and opportunism.     

Sustainability Through the Market: Making Markets Work for Everyone

Sustainable development is about ensuring a better quality of life for everyone, now and for generations to come. While sustainable production and consumption are essential, focusing on either of these alone risks ignoring the powerful market mechanisms that link them together, and which can promote sustainability. Effective markets provide choice, competition and innovation, all of which are needed if we are to improve quality of life. Today, however, markets are not working for everyone. One of the biggest barriers to achieving sustainability through the market is the fact that a large section of the global population does not have access to markets, due to poverty. Another factor is the lack of appropriate framework conditions in some markets. This article presents some to the attempts being made to improve lives “where there is no market”, and what is needed to achieve sustainability through the market, using examples from the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).     

European Integration and the Integration of European Labour Markets1

Abstract. Will European economic and monetary union bring about a unification of European labour markets, and is there likely to be a convergence of patterns of labour market organisation among Community countries? The evidence discussed suggests that a major increase in unskilled mobility across the EC is unlikely, at least concerning EC citizens. Among skilled labour, a major increase in international mobility is also unlikely on account of differences in skill organisation among countries. In contrast, the integration of European capital is causing some integration of enterprise internal labour markets across national borders as firms seek to integrate their managerial and technical workforces. In the “high-tech” area, skills are in a state of flux, and the possibility that European labour markets will emerge is much stronger than for other categories.     

中国股市跨行业系统性风险空间溢出关联及风险预测分析——基于尾部风险网络模型

基于条件风险价值CoVaR和SIM单指数分位数回归技术,选取2012-2018年我国股市24行业指数周频数据,构建时变的跨行业尾部风险网络,通过网络拓扑结构反映系统性风险的空间关联及潜在变化趋势。此外,引入ARDL模型探究网络结构和宏观经济变量对股市系统性风险的长短期效应,最后对系统性风险进行预测。结果表明：(1)我国股市行业板块间存在明显的系统性风险空间关联和传染效应,风险溢出网络具有“小世界”特征;(2)网络连边集中度HHI呈明显的周期性变化。在尾部事件期间,HHI指标显著增加,风险网络呈较单一的中心节点结构,网络稳定性差;(3)通过节点风险传播强度和中心化程度发现,仅通过节点内部属性判断节点的系统重要性已不够全面和准确,应结合节点在网络中的位置和关联关系来判断;信息技术、医疗保健、商业和专业服务行业是风险网络中最有影响力的行业;(4)通过ARDL-ECM模型发现网络连边集中度是系统性风险的主要影响因素,并对股市系统性风险进行了高度准确的预测。本研究可为监管机构有效识别我国股市中有影响力的行业提供参考,依据关键行业的溢出关联制定针对性的风险防范措施,同时对风险溢出效应设立预警机制。     

„Opportunity coaching“: Ein ermutigender Weg in die Coaching-Zukunft

?Opportunity coaching“ — a powerful way into coaching future This article stresses a powerful coaching approach: to work on a client’s resources, on a client’s potential improvement, oriented at a client’s future possibilities, chances and “opportunities”. Starting from a dialectic “as well as” paradigm: seeing strength and weaknesses, past and future, problems and possibilities not being mutual exclusions but parts of an holistic entity, the author elaborates core aspects and approaches of “opportunity coaching” and reports examples out of his coaching experience.     

Research on Markets for Inventions and Implications for R&D Allocation Strategies

Several streams of literature have examined the phenomenon of “markets for inventions”, that is, the trade of elements of knowledge which are “disembodied” from individuals, organizations, and products. The aims of this paper are to bring together the various streams of research in this area and discuss their major assumptions and limitations, in order to provide a comprehensive framework for understanding the phenomenon, and identify promising paths for future research. We start our review by identifying the object of market exchange—that is, an invention whose knowledge has been codified and disembodied from individuals, organizations, or artifacts. We then identify those factors that enable firms to trade inventions, distinguishing between institutional-, firm-, and industry-level factors. We close our analysis of the extant literature by discussing the implications of markets for inventions for firm behavior and performance. Against this background, we highlight an important avenue for future research. A neglected implication of the development of invention markets is that firms are confronted with a wide variety of technological paths from which to choose, because the opportunity to acquire technologies on the market offers them a greater variety that can their internal R&D departments. However, the streams of research on markets for inventions and on R&D allocation strategies have been surprisingly disconnected so far. Hence, in the final section, we start to establish and explore the link between these literatures, and to identify a research agenda in this domain.     

My network,my self: A social network approach to work-based identity

As the organizational landscape becomes increasingly turbulent and the gig economy grows, the conventional anchors for a work-based sense of identity – a relatively stable organization, workgroup, and occupation – are losing relevance. We argue that a “network identity,” defined as the core, distinctive, and more or less enduring character of a set of social ties (e.g., “we are high-achievers”), helps fill this growing void because individuals’ networks often reflect agency and have more or less fluid boundaries and portability. These attributes enable individuals to develop or join networks that may transcend specific contexts and adapt to change. An individual’s network identity simultaneously implicates all three levels of self – individual, relational, and collective – such that it is a potentially very powerful means for realizing his or her identity motives. Crossing the dimensions of network boundary strength and network density, we offer a 2 × 2 typology of networks and discuss their implications for members’ network identities and what kinds of individuals might prefer each network.     

Management,productivity and risk—The way ahead

Any world in transition is not short of things to argue about and we are now in transition. How our arguments are settled, whatsoever may be the virtue of the settlements, may be important. It has recently been suggested, for example, that 10 British governments have made over thirty fiscal interventions in the conduct of manufacturing industry since the Second World War, in addition to such general economic encouragements as tinkering with the minimum lending rate and the exchange value of the currency. A few of these ups-and-downs are the result of policies argued about during general election campaigns, to be sure, but even they, as well as all the others, are largely based on the advice of experts of one kind or another. But when we ask ourselves from where these experts seek the foundations of their advice, we discover a professional world no less short of its internal dissensions; when successive governments take sides with the different schools of experts, we may expect to find our transitional world also in violent oscillation. Expert controversy then may become mere intellectual brawling; this can be noticed within the professions and even lead to some soul searching.... As Johnson observed, after his efforts to secure the reprieve of a well-known preacher had failed: “Depend upon it, Sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in fortnight, it concentrates his attention wonderfully”. There is much concentrating of the attention just now. But we need to ask what to concentrate it on; nothing is as bad as the ill-conceived plan efficiently carried out, with its insistence on answering the wrong questions rather than in identifying the right ones. In the regenerative confusion of these iron times, our first need is to recognise the most discriminating questions obscured beneath the distractions of constant change; it is a need no less imperative for a profession like operational research than for the most quick-witted and evasive of party politicians. The doubts thrown on the credentials of our trade by Russell Ackoff's two recent papers are no more than the sentiment of the music hall song: “All dressed up but nowhere to go!” It is, in other words, easy to arm oneself with technique—indeed, with an arsenal of different techniques—but much more difficult to know what to do with it. There is no general theory of search, because if you do not know what you are looking for you do not know how to sample your experience. You must therefore start to guess. Decisions about the future, whether or not taken on the advice of experts, call for intelligent conjecture (if they are to be thought out) or just for simple guesswork (if they need not be). But since experts do not like risking their reputations, they are averse to guessing; they prefer to bank on the certainties of the elapsed past rather than to grope blindfold into the future. This paper suggests that action learning may be one means of concentrating attention upon the questions dying to be asked.     

The Meaning and Meaningfulness of Corporate Social Initiatives

In response to pressures to be more “socially responsible,” corporations are becoming more active in global communities through direct involvement in social initiatives. Critics, however, question the sincerity of these activities and argue that firms are simply attempting to stave off stakeholder pressures without providing a corresponding benefit to society. By drawing on institutional theory and resource dependence theory, we consider what factors influence the adoption of a “meaningful” social initiative—an initiative that is sustainable and has the potential for a significant positive impact on society—as opposed to a symbolic initiative. In addition, we raise the question of how social initiatives—both meaningful and symbolic—participate in the “institutional war” over the meaning of corporate social responsibility.     

Nicht alles ist „systemisch“

This article is a reply to an essay titled “Systemic—what else!”, recently published by Claus Nowak. Despite of great sympathy with Nowak’s passionate plea for an appreciative use of classical approaches to counseling and consulting—especially approaches of the humanistic psychological tradition—our analysis shows that the terms “systemic” and “systems theory” open up our understanding for new phenomena. Therefore, an adequate usage of the term “systemic” and a proper utilization of “systems theory” and its principles are not superfluous.     

Times Are Tough—Brother,Can You Paradigm?

Ten years ago, the National Academy of Science released its risk assessment/risk management (RA/RM) “paradigm” that served to crystallize much of the early thinking about these concepts. By defining RA as a four-step process, operationally independent from RM, the paradigm has presented society with a scheme, or a conceptually common framework, for addressing many risky situations (e.g., carcinogens, noncarcinogens, and chemical mixtures). The procedure has facilitated decision-making in a wide variety of situations and has identified the most important research needs. The past decade, however, has revealed that additional progress is needed. These areas include addressing the appropriate interaction (not isolation) between RA and RM, improving the methods for assessing risks from mixtures, dealing with “adversity of effect,” deciding whether “hazard” should imply an exposure to environmental conditions or to laboratory conditions, and evolving the concept to include both health and ecological risk. Interest in and expectations of risk assessment are increasing rapidly. The emerging concept of “comparative risk” (i.e., distinguishing between large risks and smaller risks that may be qualitatively different) is at a level comparable to that held by the concept of “risk” just 10 years ago. Comparative risk stands in need of a paradigm of its own, especially given the current economic limitations. “Times are tough; Brother, can you paradigm?”     

Reconciling Traditional Morality and the Morality of Competition

It is commonly believed that the moral norms of “everyday” or “traditional” morality apply uniformly in all business contexts. However, Joseph Heath has recently argued that this is not the case. According to Heath, the norms of everyday morality apply with respect to “administered” transactions but not “market” transactions. Market transactions are, he argues, governed by a distinct, “adversarial” morality. In this article, I argue that Heath's attempt to show that competitive contexts are governed by a distinct, adversarial morality does not succeed. I then undertake the task of showing that, contrary to what is commonly thought, competitive actions can be reconciled with the norms of traditional morality.     

CIVIL SOCIETY AND THE STATE: THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN COOPERATION AND MINIMUM WAGE REGULATION

In a cross‐section of countries, state regulation of labor markets is negatively correlated with the quality of labor relations. In this paper, we argue that these facts reflect different ways of regulating labor markets, either through the state or through the civil society, depending on the degree of cooperation in the economy. We rationalize these facts with a model of learning of the quality of labor relations. Distrustful labor relations lead to low unionization and high demand for direct state regulation of wages. In turn, state regulation crowds out the possibility for workers to experiment negotiation and learn about the potential cooperative nature of labor relations. This crowding out effect can give rise to multiple equilibria: a “good” equilibrium characterized by cooperative labor relations and high union density, leading to low state regulation; and a “bad” equilibrium, characterized by distrustful labor relations, low union density, and strong state regulation of the minimum wage.