The electronic ‘go-between service provider': a new ‘middle' role taking centre stage

While the full impact of the Internet on traditional business models and strategies is yet to be played out, one thing is already certain: it will irrevocably challenge the nature of the traditional middle role. A full spectrum of Internet-driven consequences — from disintermediation to cybermediation — has already been observed by numerous academics and practitioners. This article describes a different intermediary: the ‘go-between service provider,' who is increasingly challenging traditionalists benefiting from the new market and economic dynamics of our time. This paper, based on case studies and interviews as part of a long-term research project, presents a conceptual framework; lists critical success factors; and assesses the impact of all this on corporate thinking and practice.     

Strategic leadership and the chief executive

This article is based on research undertaken among South African chief executives occupying the most senior operational positions in public-quoted companies. In looking at distinctive characteristics in these individuals the research attempts to bring together the activities that shape the chief executive's job and explore possible trends in their background; career route and behaviour patterns, and from the compositie picture to provide guidelines for executive development.     

The political activities of social workers in the context of changing roles and political transition in Hong Kong

The article reports on a fourth study on the political participation of social workers based on a methodology developed by Gray and Collett van Rooyen (2000). Thus far studies have been conducted in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. The present study examined the political activities of social workers in Hong Kong. It begins with a review of the politicisation of Hong Kong's social workers, tracing developments from the 1960s onwards. It then examines the literature on political participation in social work, particularly various typologies of political activity, in order to add to theory relating to this important aspect of social-work practice. Thereafter, it outlines the conceptual framework and methodology used in the study, the results of which provide the basis for the discussion of the political activities of social workers in Hong Kong. It ends with an in-depth discussion of the implications of the findings for the political role of social workers in Hong Kong's changing political context.     

The interface between the child welfare and criminal justice systems in England

The development of government guidance can seem a mysterious process to those outside government. This paper, which draws on the author's experience, is intended to give some insight into how guidance in two areas—child witnesses and children involved in prostitution—was developed within the existing legal framework. Since that time, the Sexual Offences Act 2003 has come into force in England and Wales and the Children Bill is currently before Parliament. The paper begins by setting out the key legislation, regulations and guidance that underpinned the child welfare and criminal justice systems as they related to child protection at the time the guidance was being developed. It then describes how the different guidance documents relate to each other and the implications for practice. The development of speci?c guidance is drawn upon to illustrate some of the tensions that had to be resolved during the drafting and the processes by which they were ?nalized for approval by the Government. A key area requiring careful consideration was the differences between the family and criminal justice systems. In the former, the welfare of the child is paramount when making decisions and in the latter, the court has a duty to ensure the defendant has a fair trial. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Determinants of executive compensation in small business development centers

We develop and test a model of nonprofit executive compensation based on theories of organizational science, economics, and agency theory. Our sample consisted of 114 directors of small business development centers in the United States. Consistent with our model, we find significant effects for human capital, organizational size, and organizational affiliation. We find tentative support for a significant pay‐for‐performance relationship. We find that when education, tenure, size, performance, and affiliation are held constant, female executives are compensated significantly less than male executives.     

Vector quantization: clustering and classification trees

An image that is mapped into a bit stream suitable for communication over or storage in a digital medium is said to have been compressed. Using tree-structured vector quantizers (TSVQs) is an approach to image compression in which clustering algorithms are combined with ideas from tree-structured classification to provide code books that can be searched quickly and simply. The overall goal is to optimize the quality of the compressed image subject to a constraint on the communication or storage capacity, i.e. on the allowed bit rate. General goals of image compression and vector quantization are summarized in this paper. There is discussion of methods for code book design, particularly the generalized Lloyd algorithm for clustering, and methods for splitting and pruning that have been extended from the design of classification trees to TSVQs. The resulting codes, called pruned TSVQs, are of variable rate, and yield lower distortion than fixed-rate, full-search vector quantizers for a given average bit rate. They have simple encoders and a natural successive approximation (progressive) property. Applications of pruned TSVQs are discussed, particularly compressing computerized tomography images. In this work, the key issue is not merely the subjective attractiveness of the compressed image but rather whether the diagnostic accuracy is adversely aflected by compression. In recent work, TSVQs have been combined with other types of image processing, including segmentation and enhancement. The relationship between vector quantizer performance and the size of the training sequence used to design the code and other asymptotic properties of the codes are discussed.     

Participatory Organizational Research: Examining Voice in the Co‐production of Knowledge

This paper advances participatory methods in management research. We propose the term participatory organizational research to describe this adjunct to action research. We illustrate the potential of the method to allow sometimes unheard organizational members to generate alternative perspectives that can offer the potential for the co‐production of new forms of knowledge that are locally relevant. Participatory methods originate from work with marginalized groups and have been used more commonly in community and organizational development. The aim of such research is, generally, to change the social and organizational conditions within which participants operate by using their perspectives as active participants to develop alternative possibilities. As such, this research method has significant potential for management researchers in providing the means for unheard organizational members to voice their perspectives: a central component, we argue, in knowledge co‐production. Based on a participatory study of care quality in elder care institutions, we examine in detail how participatory organizational research can enable voice and explore some of the structural limitations particularly in respect of research ethics.