It was people that brought down the Berlin Wall – not process

2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jim Thomas

Purpose – Integrating services does not necessarily lead to improved outcomes for people with care and support needs and fails to address the need for workforce integration. Workforce integration requires different professional groups to give up personal power, put the people they are supporting ahead of entrenched professional rivalries and be versatile not flexible in how they work. Integration is not important to people with care and support needs, unless it makes a difference to their ability to lead an independent life. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – A personal opinion piece based on learning from the development of principles for workforce integration with social care and health employers. Findings – Integration takes time and there is no quick fix or magic solution, but it can happen. People's behaviour and motivations are complex, confusing and often inconsistent, and mandating service integration will not change the way workers behave. Perhaps it is now time to stop using service integration as a way of avoiding making tough decisions about the more challenging issue of workforce integration and what this means for those with power and control over people's lives. Originality/value – The paper separates integration into service and workforce integration and argues that too much focus is given to the former rather the latter.

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 934-949
Author(s):  
Husna Siraji Nyambia ◽  
Hamdino Hamdan

Purpose This study extensively aims to investigate the effects of different aspects of corporate governance (CG) mechanism, including board size, executive directors’ shareholdings, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) duality, a family member as the CEO and/or chairperson of the board, independent directors in remuneration committee and number of board meeting, on executive directors’ remuneration in small firms listed on Bursa Malaysia (BM). Design/methodology/approach The sample of this study consists of 173 bottom-listed companies from Bursa Malaysia in Year 2010. The Year 2010 was chosen because the disclosure of remuneration committee activities and directors’ pay structure is required under the revised Malaysia Code of Corporate Governance, 2007. Furthermore, the period selected is after the global economic crisis (2008), which may have an effect on the remuneration structure in small firms. The ordinary least squares regression was used to estimate the relationship between remuneration as dependent variable and other independent variables. Findings A finding from this study reveals that there is a significant positive relationship between executive ownership and executive remuneration, and between board size and executive remuneration. The results provide evidence that the family members manipulate power and control remuneration in small firms. This indicates that the independent directors are not truly independent to monitor and control the firm activities, including minimizing the excessive remuneration. Research limitations/implications This study examines how the corporate governance (CG) affects remuneration among 173 small firms in Malaysia based on market capitalization, for one year, 2010. Hence, the results may not be generalizable to other periods or types of the companies. This shows the possibility of the absence of some additional variables in the research model and hence a limitation to the findings of the study. Although the study is being parsimonious in the choice of relevant variables, prior literature serves the guide in the selection of the used variables. This therefore gives room for future research using the potential omitted variables. Furthermore, the study focuses on total remuneration, such as fees, salaries, bonuses and benefits in kind, which makes aggregate directors’ remuneration. However, this study did not consider the remuneration related to stock options. Finally, this study only uses secondary data; hence, it could be interesting to use other instruments to collect data like a questionnaire to add more weight to the research. This study only uses one-year data; therefore, impact of changes between years cannot be analysed. Originality/value Results of the study provide evidence that the family members manipulate power and control remuneration in small firms. They reduce the effectiveness of non-executive directors because most of them are appointed by a family member and not socially responsible to their stakeholders.


2019 ◽  
Vol 69 (1/2) ◽  
pp. 9-19
Author(s):  
Ike Iswary Lawanda

Purpose This is a methodological proposal that describes the access to information as a starting point, and the importance of access to information as the backbone for the values of investment with the notion of culture as shared beliefs, supported by information to communicate and provide awareness about issues related to environmental policy that is consistent with sustainable development. Data collection is done from census data of Cikarawang population, observation and in-depth interviews with informants of community leaders. Constructive theory constructs to identify the diversity of existing construction of and placing in the consensus. The goal of this methodology is to produce an informed and knowledgeable construction of, which simultaneously improving continuously. Constructivists do not intend to predict and control the real world and divert it but to reconstruct the world at the point of its existence: in the mind of the people of the community in Cikarawang village. The view of the importance of cultural institutions and traditional knowledge should not be ignored in reaching the target of practical dissemination of information regarding environmental policy should be conducted for further study the model of and the model for the construction of the constructed. The use of application in documenting myths and rituals of Cikarawang people is enabling the access of information of the people in learning the culture and language of Cikarawang. Moreover, it is the way to reach the goal of sustainable environment for the next generations. Design/methodology/approach The goal of this methodology is to produce an informed and knowledgeable construction of, which simultaneously improved continuously. Constructivists do not intend to predict and control the real world and divert it but to reconstruct the world at the point of its existence: in the mind of the constructor. In the process related to two aspects, : hermeneutic and dialectical. Aspects of individual construction of hermeneutic describe as compare and contrast to the dialectical aspects of individual construction of, so that each respondent was entered into the construction of another and entirely fused. Findings The access of information on asri to face global warming is to demonstrate the hybridity and syncretism of this everyday locality and to show how this global sense of place is a progressive sense of place which avoids defensive and exclusionary definitions of place and culture because they cannot be sustained in a world where understanding a place means understanding its connection to other places. However, the youths of Cikarawang are likely to self-identify, as liberals are also more supportive of progressive domestic social agenda than older generations. They are less overtly religious than the older generations. Research limitations/implications The access of information, is about trying to establish the existence of the collectivity by defining what makes it a community – isolating national characteristics, defining crucial historical moments or significant places. None of these implies that these meanings can be fixed. There might be useful to think of nations as projects which are never fully achieved. There are always alternative accounts which are being given, and alternative interpretations being made from different positions. Climate information needs to be made in accordance with the local context and activities of both of the content, format, timing and distribution (dissemination). Practical implications The undetermined that perceived lack of locals trying to understand the information about weather and climate change are delivered by using technology need to engage their participation to identify and develop adaptation and mitigation strategies. Knowledge about the weather and how to overcome it is also myths about the environment containing taboo and prohibition as well as the annual harvest ritual. Digital technology using application is the nearest object to individual youngsters to access information openly and individually. Access of information using apps and internet is bridging the issues of climate change, myths and rituals about environment, and generation gaps. Social implications The behavior of young people of Generation X are not heeding the ban in the experience of their ancestors. It is not only because of their belief in myth depleted but also in the absence of respected elders. Person figures which are respected as wise men or local leaders to be role models. In the past, knowledge and cultural information are presented, preserved, generated down to future generations. Nowadays, information about climate, weather, cultural knowledge in agriculture, irrigation, daily life, ritual, myth, and kinship is no longer simply rely on figures but the media that they believe in. Originality/value It is an interdisciplinary research of global knowledge, memory and communication. Digital technology-based application as the system to support access of information and the effort of documentation on community myths and rituals of remote people may affect on sustainable local wisdoms which protect and sustain the environment to be inherited to next generations. Web, private social networks, wikis and blogs are becoming important corporate tools for communication, collaboration and information-sharing. It is a way of young people in this Generation X most familiar in such as interactive, collaborative, managing knowledge, and managing global system and bridging generation gaps.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zehra Sayed ◽  
Henrik Agndal

Purpose This paper analyzes how information systems (IS) can serve as tools of neo-colonial control in offshore outsourcing of research and development work. It draws on critical work examining business and knowledge process outsourcing. Design/methodology/approach The paper reports an empirical study of how laboratory information management systems (LIMS) shape offshore outsourcing practices involving Western client firms and Indian contract research organizations (CROs) in the pharmaceutical industry. The study adopted a multi-actor perspective, involving interviews with representatives of Western clients, Indian CROs, system validation auditors, and software vendors. The analysis was iterative and interpretative, guided by postcolonial sensitivity to themes of power and control. Findings The study found that LIMS act as tools of neo-colonial control at three levels. As Western clients specify particular brands of LIMS, they create a hierarchy among local CROs and impact the development of the local LIMS industry. At inter-organizational level, LIMS shape relationships by allowing remote, real-time and retrospective surveillance of CROs’ work. At individual level, the ability of LIMS to support micro-modularizing of research leads to routinization of scientific discovery, negatively impacting scientists’ work satisfaction. Originality/value By examining multiple actors’ perceptions of IS, this paper looks beyond the rhetoric of system efficiency characteristic of most international business research. As it explores dynamics of power and control surrounding IS, it also questions the proposition that outsourcing of high-end work will move emerging economies upstream in the value chain.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathy Sanderson

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the socio-psychological systems in organizations that structurally support workplace aggression. Design/methodology/approach Using both a structural and contextual model of intimate partner violence (IPV), the factors supporting workplace aggression were analyzed. The narratives were provided from the participants’ lived experiences of workplace aggression, producing clear indications of where formal and informal power reside. Findings The methods of power and control used by workplace perpetrators parallel those illustrated in IPV. The inaction of management and the lack of social support enabled informal power asymmetries and the organizational norm of silence. The findings have implications for how workplaces view and intervene in relationship-based violence. Originality/value Workplace aggression has been studied from a conflict management perspective, without exploring the components that enable and support organizational abuse. As a result, organizational responses to workplace aggression have failed to address the complex relationship-based components and consequences. The primary contribution of this study is the disruption of the conflict-based perspective of workplace aggression into a more appropriate framework of violence, power and control.


2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jo Whaley ◽  
Di Domenico ◽  
Jane Alltimes

Purpose This purpose of this paper is to examine the role of engagement and empowerment in “Transforming Care”, for people with a learning disability. The aim is to shift the balance of power so that people are able to live ordinary lives in the community, in the home they choose, close to people they love. It shares ideas to support people to take control over their own lives and to influence the system, so that it works with people, rather than “doing to” people. Design/methodology/approach The paper examines barriers and enablers to people having their rights as citizens. So that people have as much choice and control as they are comfortable with to live an ordinary life (bearing in mind any legal restrictions). The paper includes people’s involvement in system/service redesign. It critiques traditional views of looking at language, participation and power. The authors have used the language throughout which people have told us they prefer as a descriptor. Findings The authors present a framework for looking at the power of, and around, people with a learning disability who have mental health issues or have displayed behaviour that can challenge services. Originality/value This paper offers advice on how to address power imbalances at individual level and at organisational/system level. It looks at the language we use, the information we share and how we work with experts by experience to ensure we can transform care and support and enable people to live ordinary lives as citizens.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurence Ferry ◽  
Mark Sandford

PurposeThe relationship between central and sub-national (local) government is contentious around distribution of power and control. There is a specific concern when a (local) place has power devolved, but centralised hierarchical accountability pervades.Design/methodology/approachThis paper addresses that concern by considering recent innovative developments around place-based accountability arrangements in England, through analysis of official reports and news media.FindingsThe article illustrates aspirations towards accountability to the local electorate clash with hierarchical accountability that remains an omnipresent mechanism of central control. It is suggested, accountability forums be developed to blend hierarchy and the place leadership role of directly elected mayors. This could enable local accountability to the electorate, whilst taking account of the context of specific regional level complexities.Originality/valueThis is one of the first papers to consider issues of place leadership and place based accountability within the framework of hierarchical accountability for central and local government relations.


2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 157-168
Author(s):  
Fiona Aspinal ◽  
Martin Stevens ◽  
Jill Manthorpe ◽  
John Woolham ◽  
Kritika Samsi ◽  
...  

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present findings from one element of a study exploring the relationship between personalisation, in the form of personal budgets (PBs) for publicly funded social care and safeguarding. Design/methodology/approach Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 people receiving PBs who had recently been the focus of a safeguarding investigation. Participants were recruited from two English local authority areas and data were subject to thematic analysis. Findings The analysis identified three main themes: levels of information and awareness; safeguarding concerns and processes; and choice and control. Many of the participants in this small study described having experienced multiple forms of abuse or neglect concurrently or repeatedly over time. Research limitations/implications This was a small scale, qualitative study, taking place in two local authorities. The small number of participants may have had strong opinions which may or may not have been typical. However, the study provides some rich data on people’s experiences. Practical implications The findings suggest that adults receiving PBs may need information on an ongoing and repeated basis together with advice on how to identify and address poor quality care that they are arranging for themselves. Practitioners need to be aware of the influence of the level of information received and the interaction of organisational or legal requirements when responding to safeguarding concerns when care being supplied tries to reflect the benefits of choice and control. Originality/value This paper reports original research asking adults with care and support needs about the interaction between two key policies of safeguarding and personalisation.


2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (5) ◽  
pp. 834-862 ◽  
Author(s):  
Warren Maroun ◽  
Jill Atkins

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore how notions of disciplinary power manifest themselves in audit regulatory developments. When it comes to research on the relationship between audit quality and regulation, much of the prior scholarly work has kept to the positivist tradition of quantitative analysis under the guise of “economic rationality”. In contrast, this research takes an interpretive approach to provide an alternate and unique perspective, using motifs of Foucauldian power and control to illuminate the operation of external regulation in a South African setting. The paper examines what may be loosely described as a mandatory whistle-blowing duty imposed on external auditors. Design/methodology/approach – Detailed interviews with some of South Africa's leading corporate governance experts are used to highlight the disciplinary effect of an auditor's duty to bring reportable irregularities to the attention of an independent regulator. Findings – Blowing the whistle on irregularities contributes, not only to increasing the information made available to stakeholders, but to creating a valid expectation of auditors serving the public interest by enhancing a sense of transparency and accountability. Elements of resistance to panoptic-like control are, however, also present suggesting that, in part, the regulation may simply be creating the illusion of active reporting. Research limitations/implications – The research relies on a relatively small sample of subject experts and does not provide a complete account of regulatory developments taking place in South Africa and abroad. Additional research on the role of whistle-blowing in an external audit setting is needed focusing particularly on similarities and variations in interpretations of reporting by auditors from the perspective of more diverse stakeholder groups. Practical/implications – Mandatory reporting of irregularities by auditors can provided additional useful information for stakeholders and may contribute to demands for more effective reporting by auditors. Social implications – Arms-length regulation of the audit profession should not be seen only as a means of improving audit quality and the utility of audit reports. Powerful social forces are also. This research demonstrates how laws and regulations have a potential disciplinary effect on the audit profession that contributes to a restoration of confidence in the audit process after it is best by scandals, even if motifs of power and control are somewhat illusionary. Originality/value – This research addresses the need for more detailed analysis of precisely how mechanisms of accountability and transparency operate in the broader corporate governance arena. The paper also contributes to the calls for more detailed, context-specific studies of audit. Finally, this paper is one of the first to employ a critical theoretical perspective on audit in an African setting, responding to the need for contextual, methodological and theoretical eclecticism in the area of corporate governance research.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (11) ◽  
pp. 11
Author(s):  
Varanasi Satyavan ◽  
University of Jeddah India

In the present age, the development of PC innovation is arriving at an unconceivable stature. Imperatively it involves the lives of individuals so as to draw in and make them feel insane. Bit by bit, Individuals chooses to remain inactive and begin to rely upon the advantages of innovation. Computerized reasoning, one of the developing advancements, in day today life utilized for the creation of hard product, for example, Cell phone, PCs that comprises of simple to utilize applications, for example, Facebook, errand person and email includes different misleadingly canny highlights which lessens the anxiety of the customer hood and causes them interface, convey and associate at an a lot quicker pace. Oh dear, this assistant has gradually driven the clients into the universe of dependence loaded up with a string of mental and mental obliges. People are the unrivaled predominant formation of the nature which can't be Substituted or imitated. In the contemporary world innovation is in the dismal of its progressions to supplant the humanity. The principal Man-made reasoning humanoid Sophia, made on February 14, 2016 by the Hong Kong based organization Hanson Mechanical autonomy in a turned way could be seen as an up and coming risk to the very presence of humankind. All the invented components are carried to reality with the assistance of the present innovation. Cyberpunk Sci-fi conjectures the advancement of Man-made brainpower to the most extreme level. At one Point it started to overwhelm the people by taking the power and control in its grasp. This Exploration Paper basically examinations the Limit and Intensity of Man-made brainpower over human power and its outcomes.


2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dirk Kohnert

ABSTRACT & RÉSUMÉ & ZUSAMMENFASSUNG: The belief in occult forces is still deeply rooted in many African societies, regardless of education, religion, and social class of the people concerned. According to many Africans its incidence is even increasing due to social stress and strain caused (among others) by the process of modernization. Most often magic and witchcraft accusations work to the disadvantage of the poor and deprived, but under particular circumstances they become a means of the poor in the struggle against oppression by establishing "cults of counterviolence." Magic and witchcraft beliefs have increasingly been instrumentalized for political purposes. Apparently they can be used to support any kind of political system, whether despotic or democratic. The belief in occult forces has serious implications for development cooperation. Development projects, which constitute arenas of strategic groups in their struggle for power and control over project resources, are likely to add further social stress to an already endangered precarious balance of power, causing witchcraft accusations to flourish. In addition, witchcraft accusations may serve as indicators of hidden social conflicts which are difficult to detect by other methods. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- RÉSUMÉ : [ La magie et la sorcellerie : conséquences pour la démocratisation et l'aide à la réduction de la pauvreté en Afrique ] - La croyance en forces occultes est encore profondément enracinée dans des nombreuses sociétés africaines, indépendamment de l'éducation, de la religion et de la classe sociale des personnes concernées. Selon des nombreux Africains, son incidence augmente encore en raison du stress social et de la tension causée (entre autres) par le processus de modernisation. Le plus souvent, les accusations de magie et de sorcellerie font mal aux pauvres et aux personnes défavorisées, mais dans des circonstances particulières, elles deviennent un moyen pour les pauvres dans la lutte contre l'oppression en établissant des « cultes de contre-violence ». Les croyances magiques et sorcelleries ont de plus en plus été instrumentées à des fins politiques. Apparemment, ils peuvent être utilisés pour soutenir tout type de système politique, qu'il soit despotique ou démocratique. La croyance en forces occultes a de sérieuses implications pour la coopération au développement. Les projets de développement, qui constituent des arènes de groupes stratégiques dans leur lutte pour le pouvoir et le contrôle sur les ressources du projet, sont susceptibles d'ajouter un stress social supplémentaire à un équilibre de pouvoir précaire déjà menacé, ce qui entraînera des accusations de sorcellerie. En outre, les accusations de sorcellerie peuvent servir d'indicateur de conflits sociaux cachés qui sont difficiles à détecter par d'autres méthodes. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ZUSAMMENFASSUNG: [Magie und Hexerei: Implikationen für Demokratisierung und armuts-lindernde Entwicklungshilfe in Afrika] - Der Glaube an okkulte Mächte ist immer noch fest verankert in vielen afrikanischen Gesellschaften, unabhängig von Ausbildung, Religion und sozialer Klasse der betroffenen Menschen. Viele Afrikaner glauben sogar, dass Hexerei weiter zunimmt durch die wachsenden gesellschaftlichen Gegensätze im Rahmen der Modernisierung. In der Regel wirken Hexenanschuldigungen zum Nachteil der Armen und Entrechteten. Aber unter bestimmten Umständen können sie durch die Etablierung von ‚Kulten der Gegengewalt‘ auch zum Mittel der Armen in ihrem Kampf gegen Unterdrückung werden. Der Glaube an Magie und Hexerei wird in Afrika zunehmend für politische Zwecke instrumentalisiert. Augenscheinlich kann er zur Unterstützung jeglicher politischer Systeme, ob despotisch oder demokratisch, genutzt werden. Aus dem Glauben an okkulte Mächte ergeben sich gravierende Implikationen für die Entwicklungszusammenarbeit. Entwicklungsprojekt, die auf lokaler Ebene Schauplatz strategischer Gruppen in ihrer Auseinandersetzung um Macht und Kontrolle über Projektmittel bilden, sind dazu angetan, weiteren sozialen Stress zum ohnehin schon prekären Machtgleichgewicht hinzuzufügen, und heizen Hexenanschuldigungen damit an. Davon abgesehen, können Hexenanschuldigungen als Indikator für versteckte soziale Konflikte dienen, die durch andere Methoden der Entwicklungszusammenarbeit kaum aufzudecken sind.


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