Techniques and paradoxes in performing performance measurements: concluding reflections

ABSTRACT

Performance measurement has an implicit performance theory embedded within its practice; performance measurement perforce performs. Performance measurement has a performative effect on performance. Drawing together and building on the various empirical observations from the preceding papers in this collection, this concluding paper firstly examines the circumstances in which performance measurement performs, that is, when it produces ‘authentic’ performance improvements, compared to when performance measurements misfire. The paper secondly explores several paradoxes of performance measurement – such that performance measurement measures only part of the performance it seeks to be performative on, incentives to perform incentivise poor performance and so on. These paradoxes, contradictions and ironies must be apprehended and appreciated in discovering, discerning and deciphering the diverse dynamics of measuring performance. They also demonstrate that analysing and working with performance measurement requires a perspective that eschews absolutes and clear directions, and embraces the uneasy and potentially destabilising tension of Escher’s performative art.     

信息不对称条件下双寡头市场中质量差异化产品虚假信息问题研究

基于博弈论和契约理论,研究了信息不对称条件下双寡头市场质量差异化产品定价过程中虚假信息的问题。消费者与企业关于产品质量信息存在严重不对称,为企业使用虚假质量信息提高企业利润提供了较大的空间。为分析企业使用虚假信息的问题,本文基于Bertrand博弈模型构建了双寡头市场质量差异化产品定价模型并求解企业利润。求解结果表明双寡头市场的纳什博弈均衡解为两企业均使用虚假信息,在此基础上进一步从契约的角度对企业使用虚假信息的问题进行了合理规避。最后运用算例分析验证了模型的正确性。     

Sexual Behaviors of Hispanic Emerging Adults: Examining the Immigrant Paradox

The current study examined the immigrant paradox regarding risky sexual behaviors of Hispanic emerging adults from a social learning perspective, theorizing that the immigrant paradox could partially be explained by the sexual lyrical content contained in music. Participants included 173 Hispanic emerging adults from South America, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Central America, and Mexico. The current study examined sexual lyrical content along with gender, generational status, family structure, economic hardship, and religiosity. Participant gender was associated with age at first date, with male participants engaging in unsupervised dating activities earlier than female participants, and number of dating partners, with female participants reporting more dating partners than male participants. Results from hierarchical regression analyses indicated that sexual lyrical content in music could partially explain the immigrant paradox regarding risky sexual behaviors of Hispanic emerging adults.     

悖论诗学视阈中的杜诗艺术风格特质新探

“诗圣”杜甫的“集大成”诗歌艺术是一座令后人开采不尽的诗学宝藏,但同时不应被误解为简单的众多风格之“大拼盘”或者玄妙的“奇变”和“天机”。通过当代中西诗学理论的汇通与契合,从悖论诗学理论的学术视角来重新深入审视杜诗艺术风格的特质,杜诗风格组合确实呈现出典型的诗学悖论特质,亦即前贤诗评家     

墙高出睦邻——人际交往的悖论——从文体分析的视角透视《补墙》的主题

为了探讨弗罗斯特的诗歌《补墙》的主题意义,以篇章格律和词汇语法层的语言特征为依据,对该诗进行文体分析。研究发现:在共同补墙中,邻居之间在言行、观点和态度等方面的"失谐"表明"墙高出睦邻"实际上是人际交往中的一个悖论;交往中的矛盾和困惑源自信任的缺乏和交流的缺失。结果表明:聚焦于文本的篇章格律和语言特征的分析有助于揭示其主题意义。     

城市道路治堵刍议

城市道路的拥堵已成城市的顽疾,在城市道路拥堵治理时,还应在加大交通法宣传力度、明确法规规定的路权、加强司机路德意识教育等方面想办法,提高驾驶者的素质。在“软件”方面下些功夫,相信“软件”在城市道路治堵具有重要作用。本文就笔者观察到的交通悖论,提出一些治堵的途径。     

魔幻现实主义：“现实主义”与“现代主义”之间的复调式对话

魔幻现实主义作家把欧洲现代文学与拉丁美洲神奇的现实相结合,又不乏后现代怪诞式因素的独特综合演绎。其文学作品顺延了现实主义与现代主义文学,但不是简单继承,而是不断创新建构。＂魔幻怪诞＂的创作手法及＂神话＂原型母体的艺术渗透,使其成为世界多元文化中的一朵奇葩。     

启蒙的悖论及其出路

文章对近代以来由启蒙所带来的各种悖论问题进行了重新反思,并对霍克海默、阿多诺、哈贝马斯、福柯、德里达等哲学家的相关思想进行了梳理、比照和批判性的检讨,指出其各自得失,提出在伦理实践的层面上寻求走出启蒙困境的道路,从而避免对启蒙进行二元论解释.文章试图以卢梭晚年的思想和生活为例来重新理解亚里士多德所说的"审慎"的"实践智慧",用以发掘我们这个时代的"启蒙"的意义.     

Retrenching or renovating the Australian welfare state: the paradox of the Howard government's neo-liberalism

Most conventional studies of the former Australian Liberal–National Coalition government refer to its neo-liberal ideological agenda: its concern to reduce government interference with free market outcomes by restricting access to social security payments. That analysis suggests a substantial retrenchment of the Australian welfare state based on redirecting responsibility for the disadvantaged from government to corporations, private individuals and families. Yet there is increasing evidence from reliable sources that the government has not reduced social expenditure, and that increasing resources have been directed, particularly via the family payments system, towards some disadvantaged groups such as low-income families and the aged. Utilising the theory of the US political scientist Paul Pierson, this article explores the joint paradox of Australian neo-liberalism: the punitive treatment of some disadvantaged groups such as the disabled and lone parents versus the generosity towards other groups and, more generally, the growth rather than decline in social expenditure. The author asks what this paradox tells us about the likely future of the welfare state in Australia and elsewhere.     

弱势群体保护的人本主义诠释

当下中国的人本主义发展理念的生成与弱势群体问题有着内在而深刻的关联,人本主义是弱势群体保护的根本性哲学基础与现实出路.人本主义蕴涵了弱势群体保护的价值追求:人是目的;廓清了弱势群体保护的道义基础:社会平等;明晰了弱势群体保护的发力源泉:国家责任;标示了弱势群体保护的有效路径:共享发展.人本主义语境下弱势群体保护的实质是对现代性危机的破解,其理念是对科学发展观的诉求.