Renegotiating the terms of engagement: Public relations,marketing, and contemporary challenges

Territorial disputes between public relations and marketing are nothing new. At the end of the first decade of the 21st century, Hutton (2010) refocused them as a matter of survival in the face of marketing attempts “to include or subsume much or all of public relations” (p. 509). In addition to aligning with his call to resist marketing imperialism, this article seeks to renegotiate traditional turf wars between the two fields through a review of recent significant marketing books. Advocating a complexity-based perspective, it argues that evolving disciplines, like evolving species, need to respond not only to each other but also to the wider environment and that requires cooperation as well as competition. It also draws on complexity thinking as a resource for improving disciplinary intersections and for adapting to the uncertain and turbulent conditions of the present.     

Youth and Youth Issues in the Perspective of Complexity Fdgar Modus Ideas, Methods, and Its Implications

复杂性理论作为一种研究方法、思维方式对青年研究具有重要意义。埃德加·莫兰的复杂性思想在重塑人的概念方面所提出的某些观点,特别是其对青年和青年问题所给予的特别关注和深度介入,则直接将青年研究引入复杂性视域。青年猴、青春化、青少年阶级,是莫兰提出的关于青年问题的三个相互联结的概念,或可称之为三个“青年假说”,其中蕴涵的认识价值对青年研究有着特别的启示。     

复杂性视域中的青年与青年问题——埃德加·莫兰的思想、方法及其启示

复杂性理论作为一种研究方法、思维方式对青年研究具有重要意义。埃德加·莫兰的复杂性思想在重塑人的概念方面所提出的某些观点,特别是其对青年和青年问题所给予的特别关注和深度介入,则直接将青年研究引入复杂性视域。青年猴、青春化、青少年阶级,是莫兰提出的关于青年问题的三个相互联结的概念,或可称之为三个“青年假说”,其中蕴涵的认识价值对青年研究有着特别的启示。     

试论西方人力资源管理思维方式的沿革——从线性思维到复杂思维

从古希腊到近代,西方社会在对人的管理思想方面,其间虽不乏系统的、有机的思想,但线性思维方式一直居于统治地位。今天,复杂性思维方式已逐渐融入西方企业人力资源管理理论与实践之中,而这一切,均与同时代自然科学思维方式密切相关。     

Quantitative complexity analysis in multi-channel intracranial EEG recordings form epilepsy brains

Epilepsy is a brain disorder characterized clinically by temporary but recurrent disturbances of brain function that may or may not be associated with destruction or loss of consciousness and abnormal behavior. Human brain is composed of more than 10 to the power 10 neurons, each of which receives electrical impulses known as action potentials from others neurons via synapses and sends electrical impulses via a sing output line to a similar (the axon) number of neurons. When neuronal networks are active, they produced a change in voltage potential, which can be captured by an electroencephalogram (EEG). The EEG recordings represent the time series that match up to neurological activity as a function of time. By analyzing the EEG recordings, we sought to evaluate the degree of underlining dynamical complexity prior to progression of seizure onset. Through the utilization of the dynamical measurements, it is possible to classify the state of the brain according to the underlying dynamical properties of EEG recordings. The results from two patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), the degree of complexity start converging to lower value prior to the epileptic seizures was observed from epileptic regions as well as non-epileptic regions. The dynamical measurements appear to reflect the changes of EEG’s dynamical structure. We suggest that the nonlinear dynamical analysis can provide a useful information for detecting relative changes in brain dynamics, which cannot be detected by conventional linear analysis.     

理论简单性原则：科学真善美的统一

文章认为,“简单性原则”的真正含义应是“理解简单性原则”;它以科学真善美的统一为 理论基础;在复杂性科学逐渐兴起和成熟的今天,不仅不应放弃,而且更应提倡这一原则。     

Governing complexity to challenge neoliberalism? Embedded firms and the prospects of understanding new realities

Many initial assumptions about the appeal of global development and governance have run aground on the shoals of countervailing realities and interests. The overall trend of political despair and disillusionment, the loss of confidence in the markets as a unique arbiter of value creation and distribution, and the marketable appeal of governance best practices seem to have reached their nadir. Management literature has begun to question these issues and to call for a deeper understanding of the dynamics of political, social and corporate change. The question of (corporate) governance is plural and needs multilevel approaches to meet the new challenges of complex realities, especially the pressure of neoliberalism with two central consequences: financialization and globalization of economies. In this reflexive article, we aim to initiate avenues for new thinking at the institutional, corporate and academic levels. Institutional and regulatory frameworks need to be seen as local systems connected internationally and not global systems adapted locally. Theoretical frameworks need to be more integrated to grasp the same phenomena with multiple lenses. Methodological approaches and tools need also to be reinforced mutually to overlay the dichotomic examination of these complex realities.     

Adoption for adaptation: A theory-based approach for monitoring a complex policy initiative

This paper explores some of the challenges involved in designing a monitoring framework for a complex policy initiative designed to support climate change adaptation in a highly varied and dynamic implementation environment. It looks specifically at the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) initiative called Action on Climate Today, a five-year programme that aims to support the mainstreaming of climate change adaptation into policy systems in five countries and ten locations in South Asia.This paper presents a theory-based approach to designing a monitoring system for the ACT programme that seeks to account for the programme’s design and implementation complexities. It does so by providing an example for monitoring the causal processes and mechanisms that underpin the programme’s theory of change. The paper highlights a systematic approach to context monitoring through periodic context assessments and evaluative indicators; the use of categorical indicators to capture a diverse portfolio of support; and a flexible results framework structured around the adoption and implementation of programme outputs into the targeted policy systems.     

Top Managers' cognition facilitates organisational ambidexterity: The mediating role of cognitive processes

It is empirically founded and tested that top management team group processes facilitate ambidexterity, whereas the role of top managers' cognition has remained empirically largely neglected. This study contributes to the literature of top managers' cognition by theoretically developing the relationship between cognitive frames and organisational ambidexterity, and the mediating process of cognitive differentiation and integration. The study empirically tests the proposed model in cross-sectional design by employing a sample of 101 top managers, using partial least squares structural equation modelling.The study shows that top managers' paradoxical frames encourage the engagement in cognitive differentiation and integration, whereas top managers' paradoxical frames are not significantly related to organisational ambidexterity. Solely appreciating exploitation and exploration does not foster ambidexterity, but is an antecedent for top managers' cognitive differentiation and integration. Top managers' cognitive differentiation and integration mediate the relationship between top managers' paradoxical frames and organisational ambidexterity. Additionally, top managers' cognitive integration moderates the effect between top managers' cognitive differentiation and organisational ambidexterity, which stresses the pivotal role of top managers' cognitive integration.     

Testing the Interaction Effects of Task Complexity in Computer Training Using the Social Cognitive Model

Using a Modified Social Cognitive Theory framework, this study examines the behavior modeling and lecture‐based training approaches to computer training. It extends the existing Social Cognitive Model for computer training by adding the task complexity construct to training method, prior performance, computer self‐efficacy, outcome expectations, and performance. A sample of 249 students from a large state university served as participants in a laboratory experiment that was conducted to determine the task complexity*training method and task complexity* self‐efficacy interaction effects on performance. Structural equation modeling with interaction effects was used to analyze the data. The results show that behavior modeling outperforms lecture‐based training in a measure of final performance when task complexity is high. Further, it is found that computer self‐efficacy has a greater positive effect on performance when task complexity is high than when task complexity is low. Prior performance is also found to be an important variable in the model.