Managing Risk as a Duality of Harm and Benefit: A Study of Organizational Risk Objects in the Global Insurance Industry

This study examines how organizations construct and manage risk objects as a duality of harm–benefit within their normal operations. It moves beyond the existing focus on accidents, disasters and crisis. We study the risk‐transfer processes of 35 insurers where they navigate the tension of retaining risk in their insurance portfolio to increase the benefit of making profit and transferring risk to reinsurance to reduce the harm of paying claims. We show that organizations’ constructions of risk are underpinned by everyday risk management practices of centralizing, calculating and diversifying. Through variation in these practices, not all organizations seek balance and we in turn uncover the sensemaking processes of abstracting and localizing that enable organizations to prioritize harm or benefit. This contributes to the risk literature by illuminating the co‐constitutive relationship between risk sensemaking processes and everyday risk management practices. Following the complex linkages involved in the construction of risk objects as sources of harm–benefit, our analysis also contributes to the literature on dualities. It shows that while immediate trade‐offs between harm–benefit occur, prioritizing one element of the duality is ultimately a means for attaining the other. Thus, while initial imbalance is evident, prioritization can be an enabling approach to navigating duality.     

Reviews of Academic English Listening Tests for Non-Native Speakers

This article presents a review of 20 tests designed for assessing the academic English listening skill of second or foreign language learners. The available test information has been systematically condensed in purpose, listening construct, task characteristics, and validity evidence. It was found that most of the tests were developed for proficiency and placement purposes in academic contexts, with few of the tests serving for making workplace decisions. Also, global, local, and inferential skills constitute the construct in most listening comprehension tests. A practical approach for justifying the uses of these tests for different stakeholders is discussed. This review is a valuable resource for educators, administrators, test developers, and researchers looking for a comprehensive analysis of existing English tests that assess listening comprehension in second or foreign language learners.     

Absent bodies and present memories: marking out the everyday and the future in Eastern Sri Lanka

Drawing from ethnographic work carried out between 2005 and 2007, this article considers the ways in which a women’s network has developed strategies to find meaning around the absences of loved ones, killed or ‘disappeared’ during the decades of conflict in Sri Lanka. For most of these women, the fate of their husbands, brothers, sons and fathers is not known and the lack of answers means that they are unable to fully grieve and find closure. In order to survive, they must find ways to deal with the absent bodies and present memories of those who may never be located and accounted for. These strategies include tree-planting ceremonies carried out as a way of not only remembering and mourning loved ones but also asking questions about how one makes sense of loss and what it means to carry the burden of unanswered absences through everyday life and into the future.     

谈现代企业加强诚信管理的意义和途径

诚信管理是政府和企业在生产经营过程中,通过进行诫信制度建设,树立诚信理念,打造诚信品牌,以及对企业各部门、组织、管理者、员工加强诚信教育和管理监督的活动,使企业做到货真价实、讲究信誉、信守合同和绝不欺诈,以期达到赢得社会普遍信任与和谐发展的目的。现代诚信管理既包括企业内在的诚信经营管理,也包括政府有关部门对企业进行的外在诚信监督管理,二者有机结合可以打造诚信社会,为企业开展公平竞争和实现可持续发展创造良好的诚信市场环境。     

论休闲与社会进步

在物质文明飞速发展的今天,高度文明的精神生活已成为人们追求的目标。人逐渐学会一种使人真正成为人的生活方式,这便是休闲。休闲是人类文明发展和“以人为本”的体现,也是社会进步的需要。     

李贺和比喻

李贺的比喻和一般比喻差别很大,他经常颠倒喻词和被喻词之间的关系,给人带来震撼。这种比喻方法,不仅表现了李贺心中万物平等的思想,也展现了迥异现实的另一世界的景象。     

试论《第一批异形词整理表》的学习与使用

教育部、国家语委发布《第一批异形词整理表》对完善我国语言文学的规范化有重要的意义。文章论述了异形词的内容及整理的原则 ,在学习和使用《第一批异形词整理表》时要注意的问题 ,包括如何找出使用推荐词形的规律和避免容易出现的错误等 ,并对此表存在问题试作分析     

论地下工程发展与该专业人才培养

介绍了国内外地下工程开发的现状与未来 ,论述了地下工程专业人才的需求 ,对地下工程专业人才的培养提出了建议 ,可供有关领导决策时参考     

熊希龄伦理思想的个案研究

熊希龄是中国近代史上一位有争议的人物。从他所创办的湖南瓷业公司的实业活动中 ,研究他独特的伦理思想和个人特点 ,将有助于人们对他进行更全面、恰当的历史评价