Dial 'M' for Metonym: Universal Exports,M's Office Space and Empire

For James Bond, Britishness is most often realised outside the British Isles, within the old Empire. Whenever physically located in Britain proper, he is most likely to be found in the offices of Universal Exports otherwise known as the British Secret Service. M's office is a metonym for England, a stable point of departure for Bond's adventures, and a site from which to theorise the relationship between M (England) and Bond (Britain); ideology, iconography and office fittings; changes and challenges to that 'office space'; cognitive mapping and the resonance of a British signifier on the margins of empire.     

Consensual commitment: A grounded theory of the meso-level influence of organizational design on leadership and decision-making

This research examined the relationship between organizational design and leadership in decision-making teams. It used a grounded theory-based qualitative research design. The validity of the research was enhanced by data triangulation, wherein quantitative psychometric data augmented the qualitative data that are traditionally used. The research was based upon two organizations within the substantive setting of the knowledge industry. The higher order category of consensual commitment explained effective decision-making. At the meso-level of leadership modeling, organizational design influenced both leadership style and decision-making. Specifically, an organizational design that generated lateral job roles and a relational leadership orientation was found to enhance consensual commitment, and provided a level of assurance against dysfunctional team dynamics.     

Autorität? Führung? Macht?

The topic of education and learning currently being debated with much fervor in the public arena reflects the process of change within postmodern society and its impact on the development of children and adolescents. This discussion grapples with the issue of the authority of parents and teachers as well as their role in the context of family and school. The task of trying out new roles and agreeing on them is of pre-eminent importance, since traditional role models are no longer tenable. In doing so, the relation between hierarchy and discourse is being established anew.     

私有化对电信服务商技术能力提高的影响

提出一个技术能力的评估框架,即4种与主要增值活动相关的技术能力(创新能力、设计与工程技术能力、市场营销与销售能力、服务能力)和4种与辅助增值活动相关的技术能力(获取资源能力、人力资源开发能力、战略计划能力、信息技术能力),并将其应用于斯里兰卡电信公司私有化前后的考察,得出私有化带来了技术能力显著提高的结论.     

Beyond a Simple Case of Black and White: Searching for the White Male Effect in the African-American Community

Prior research focusing on risk perceptions has led to the observation that well‐educated and politically conservative white males tend to systematically perceive lower levels of risk from a wide range of hazards when compared to other members of society (e.g., white women, nonwhite women and men). While this “white male effect (WME)” is quite striking given that many policymakers fall into this group, a byproduct of this finding is that it deflects attention from the heterogeneity, in terms of people's concerns about risks, that exists in African‐American and other minority communities. The research reported here set out to explore this heterogeneity by asking a simple question: Can a phenomenon similar to the WME be found in the African‐American community? It can, and its implications for research and practice in risk management are discussed.     

Quantitative Risk Assessment of the New York State Operated West Valley Radioactive Waste Disposal Area

This article is based on a quantitative risk assessment (QRA) that was performed on a radioactive waste disposal area within the Western New York Nuclear Service Center in western New York State. The QRA results were instrumental in the decision by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority to support a strategy of in‐place management of the disposal area for another decade. The QRA methodology adopted for this first of a kind application was a scenario‐based approach in the framework of the triplet definition of risk (scenarios, likelihoods, consequences). The measure of risk is the frequency of occurrence of different levels of radiation dose to humans at prescribed locations. The risk from each scenario is determined by (1) the frequency of disruptive events or natural processes that cause a release of radioactive materials from the disposal area; (2) the physical form, quantity, and radionuclide content of the material that is released during each scenario; (3) distribution, dilution, and deposition of the released materials throughout the environment surrounding the disposal area; and (4) public exposure to the distributed material and the accumulated radiation dose from that exposure. The risks of the individual scenarios are assembled into a representation of the risk from the disposal area. In addition to quantifying the total risk to the public, the analysis ranks the importance of each contributing scenario, which facilitates taking corrective actions and implementing effective risk management. Perhaps most importantly, quantification of the uncertainties is an intrinsic part of the risk results. This approach to safety analysis has demonstrated many advantages of applying QRA principles to assessing the risk of facilities involving hazardous materials.     

An Empirical Model of Perceived Mortality Risks for Selected U.S. Arsenic Hot Spots

Researchers have long recognized that subjective perceptions of risk are better predictors of choices over risky outcomes than science‐based or experts’ assessments of risk. More recent work suggests that uncertainty about risks also plays a role in predicting choices and behavior. In this article, we develop and estimate a formal model for an individual's perceived health risks associated with arsenic contamination of his or her drinking water. The modeling approach treats risk as a random variable, with an estimable probability distribution whose variance reflects uncertainty. The model we estimate uses data collected from a survey given to a sample of people living in arsenic‐prone areas in the United States. The findings from this article support the fact that scientific information is essential to explaining the mortality rate perceived by the individuals, but uncertainty about the probability remains significant.     

Distribution system choice in a service industry: An analysis of international insurance firms operating in the United States

Service firms play an increasingly important role in the global economy. However, the internationalization strategies of such firms, and especially their distribution system choices, have been underexplored in the international management literature. One specific service industry that has internationalized rapidly in recent years is the insurance industry. This paper examines the determinants and performance implications of the choice by international insurance firms between two rival distribution systems: direct writing and independent sales agents. Drawing on the transaction cost theory-based literature on resource commitment, control, and risk, we develop hypotheses on the determinants of the choice between these two distribution systems and on the performance implications of this choice for insurance firms. Analyzing a sample of 168 distribution entries into the United States by insurance firms from six foreign countries over the 1992–2000 period, we find that cultural distance has a U-shaped effect on the probability of direct writing, and that an insurer's intangible assets have a positive effect on this probability. We also find that the direct writing system performs better in terms of profitability, but that the independent agency system performs better in terms of market share growth.     

Global product development projects: measuring performance and monitoring the risks

Abstract

This article investigates the development and application of key performance indicators for global product development. Two in-depth, longitudinal case studies with multinational Danish manufacturing companies were conducted, and highlight how key performance indicators, typically used for collocated, cross-functional product development, do not provide the predictive insight required to avoid the additional risks encountered in the global product development environment. Grounded in the case study results and building on established methodologies in performance measurement literature, a framework was developed and validated in two additional Danish companies to support project managers to develop: preventive indicators, which support the avoidance of identified risks, and outcome indicators, which support the measurement towards the attainment of project objectives. The study is unique as it is one of the very few longitudinal studies of engineering design activities in a global context, providing the in-depth contextual understanding towards key risks and their influence on performance; an important step to support researchers and practitioners with the development of preventive measures.