Management Consultants: Systems Development, Power and the Translation of Problems

1992 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 533-560 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian P. Bloomfield ◽  
Ardha Best

This paper aims to shed light on the exercise of power during the development and implementation of organisational information systems. Considering the use of Information Technology (IT) to help solve organisational problems, we employ the concept of the ‘sociology of translation’ to theorise the process by which the organisational problem is constituted and for which the appropriate IT solution is proposed. Discussing the nature of the power relationship between external management consultants in IT and client or user organisations, the paper considers the role of symbolic resources such as managerial discourse, and the differential access to IT knowledge and skills, as important aspects of power in that relationship.

2019 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 306-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shani Kuna

The scholarly literature regarding executive consulting relationships, typically labeled as executive coaching, tends to focus on the issue of its effectiveness. The fundamental question regarding executives’ desire to engage in this kind of intervention, whose benefits are considered ambivalent, has been mostly overlooked. Addressing this theme was the purpose of this exploratory study, in which in-depth interviews were conducted with 46 Israeli executives. Despite the executives’ explanation of executive coaching in rational terms of knowledge acquisition, the findings shed light on two phenomena that, surprisingly, have received limited attention: executive loneliness and impostorism. These intertwined experiences have been executives’ implicit catalysts for seeking help from management consultants. The study highlights the significant role of executive coaching as a means of emotional support for executive impostorism and loneliness. A major implication is the importance of providing managers promoted to senior positions with preparation for the emotional distress associated with their role.


2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 345-361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karin Astrid Siegmann

This article investigates the role of international labour migration from Pakistan’s Northwest for the sending communities’ social resilience. It focuses on the implications of male out‐migration for the women who stay behind. This article refers to Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice to shed light on the gendered nature of vulnerability and resilience. Contradictions identified between heightened vulnerability at the level of individual women and strengthened resilience of the household underline the social construction of scale in the analysis of resilience. With his emphasis on material as well as symbolic resources determining opportunities and well‐being, Bourdieu provides an analytical key for the identification of such ‘uncomfortable layers of resilience’.


2019 ◽  
Vol 89 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 80-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliana Soares Severo ◽  
Jennifer Beatriz Silva Morais ◽  
Taynáh Emannuelle Coelho de Freitas ◽  
Ana Letícia Pereira Andrade ◽  
Mayara Monte Feitosa ◽  
...  

Abstract. Thyroid hormones play an important role in body homeostasis by facilitating metabolism of lipids and glucose, regulating metabolic adaptations, responding to changes in energy intake, and controlling thermogenesis. Proper metabolism and action of these hormones requires the participation of various nutrients. Among them is zinc, whose interaction with thyroid hormones is complex. It is known to regulate both the synthesis and mechanism of action of these hormones. In the present review, we aim to shed light on the regulatory effects of zinc on thyroid hormones. Scientific evidence shows that zinc plays a key role in the metabolism of thyroid hormones, specifically by regulating deiodinases enzymes activity, thyrotropin releasing hormone (TRH) and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) synthesis, as well as by modulating the structures of essential transcription factors involved in the synthesis of thyroid hormones. Serum concentrations of zinc also appear to influence the levels of serum T3, T4 and TSH. In addition, studies have shown that Zinc transporters (ZnTs) are present in the hypothalamus, pituitary and thyroid, but their functions remain unknown. Therefore, it is important to further investigate the roles of zinc in regulation of thyroid hormones metabolism, and their importance in the treatment of several diseases associated with thyroid gland dysfunction.


2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanessa Joosen

Compared to the attention that children's literature scholars have paid to the construction of childhood in children's literature and the role of adults as authors, mediators and readers of children's books, few researchers have made a systematic study of adults as characters in children's books. This article analyses the construction of adulthood in a selection of texts by the Dutch author and Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award winner Guus Kuijer and connects them with Elisabeth Young-Bruehl's recent concept of ‘childism’ – a form of prejudice targeted against children. Whereas Kuijer published a severe critique of adulthood in Het geminachte kind [The despised child] (1980), in his literary works he explores a variety of positions that adults can take towards children, with varying degrees of childist features. Such a systematic and comparative analysis of the way grown-ups are characterised in children's texts helps to shed light on a didactic potential that materialises in different adult subject positions. After all, not only literary and artistic aspects of children's literature may be aimed at the adult reader (as well as the child), but also the didactic aspect of children's books can cross over between different age groups.


2019 ◽  
Vol 118 (11) ◽  
pp. 80-88
Author(s):  
Ramyar Rzgar Ahmed ◽  
Hawkar Qasim Birdawod ◽  
S. Rabiyathul Basariya

The study dealt with tax evasion in the medical profession, where the problem was the existence of many cases of tax evasion, especially tax evasion in the income tax of medical professions. The aim of the study is to try to shed light on the phenomenon of tax evasion and the role of the tax authority in the development of controls and means that reduce the phenomenon of tax evasion. The most important results of the low level of tax awareness and lack of knowledge of the tax law and the unwillingness to read it and the sense of taxpayers unfairness of the tax all lead to an increase in cases of tax evasion and in suggested tightening control and follow-up on the offices of auditors, through the investigation and auditing The reports of certified accountants and the use of computers for this purpose in order to raise the degree of confidence in these reports and bring them closer to the required truth and coordination and cooperation with the Union of Accountants and Auditors and inform them about each case of violations of the auditors and accountants N because of its great influence in the rejection of the organization of the accounts and not to ratify fake accounts lead to show taxpayers accounts on a non-truth in order to tax evasion.


2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 171
Author(s):  
Yusnawarni Yusnawarni

To commemorate the 21st century, a new learning model was designed in 2013 curriculum, in which there is a shift from teachers give knowledge to students become student must actively seek out knowledge from a variety of learning resources. In this case, the teacher acts as facilitators. Thus, language is a very central role, because the language should be in front of all other subjects. Curriculum 2013 imposed a thematic integrated learning which is no longer based subjects. Various subjects for primary schools (such as: Religion, Civics, Indonesian, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, and so on) are integrated intoone book. The subject matter is not presented in textbook, but it presented in book thematics lesson, the themes are about nature, social life and culture. In this new curriculum, learning process is implemented by applying a scientific approach (observing, questioning, experimenting, associating, and networking) that includes three aspects such as attitudes, knowledge, and skills. So, how is the role of Indonesian in an integrated thematic learning by applying scientific approaches in primary schools in 2013 curriculum? By appying the method, the object of this paper is to gain preview about the role of Indonesian in 2013 curriculum that uses integrated thematic learning by scientific approach in primary schools.AbstrakUntuk menyongsong abad ke-21, model pembelajaran baru dirancang dalam Kurikulum 2013, yang di dalamnya terdapat pergeseran dari siswa diberi tahu menjadi siswa harus aktif mencari tahu ilmu pengetahuan dari berbagai sumber belajar. Dalam hal ini, guru berperan sebagai fasilitator. Dengan demikian, peran bahasa menjadi sangat sentral, karena bahasa harus berada di depan semua mata pelajaran lain. Kurikulum 2013 memberlakukan pembelajaran tematik terpadu yang tidak lagi berbasis mata pelajaran. Berbagai mata pelajaran untuk sekolah dasar (seperti: Agama, PPKN, Bahasa Indonesia, Matematika, IPA, IPS, dan sebagainya) diintegrasi menjadi satu buku. Materi pelajaran tidak disajikan dalam buku mata pelajaran, tetapi dalam buku tema pelajaran, baik tema alam, sosial, maupun budaya. Proses pembelajaran dalam kurikulum baru ini diimplementasikan melalui pendekatan saintifik (mengamati, menanya, menalar, mencoba, dan mengomunikasikan) yang mencakup tiga aspek, yaitu sikap, pengetahuan, dan keterampilan. Lalu, bagaimana peran bahasa Indonesia dalam pembelajaran tematik terpadu melalui pendekatan saintifik di sekolah dasar pada Kurikulum 2013 ini? Melaluimetode deskriptif, yang menjadi tujuan penulisan ini adalah mendapatkan gambaran mengenai peran bahasa Indonesia dalam Kurikulum 2013 yang menggunakan pembelajaran tematik terpadu melalui pendekatan saintifik di sekolah dasar.


Author(s):  
Stéphane A. Dudoignon

Since 2002, Sunni jihadi groups have been active in Iranian Baluchistan without managing to plunge the region into chaos. This book suggests that a reason for this, besides Tehran’s military responses, has been the quality of Khomeini and Khamenei’s relationship with a network of South-Asia-educated Sunni ulama (mawlawis) originating from the Sarbaz oasis area, in the south of Baluchistan. Educated in the religiously reformist, socially conservative South Asian Deoband School, which puts the madrasa at the centre of social life, the Sarbazi ulama had taken advantage, in Iranian territory, of the eclipse of Baluch tribal might under the Pahlavi monarchy (1925-79). They emerged then as a bulwark against Soviet influence and progressive ideologies, before rallying to Khomeini in 1979. Since the turn of the twenty-first century, they have been playing the role of a rampart against Salafi propaganda and Saudi intrigues. The book shows that, through their alliance with an Iranian Kurdish-born Muslim-Brother movement and through the promotion of a distinct ‘Sunni vote’, they have since the early 2000s contributed towards – and benefitted from – the defence by the Reformist presidents Khatami (1997-2005) and Ruhani (since 2013) of local democracy and of the minorities’ rights. They endeavoured to help, at the same time, preventing the propagation of jihadism and Sunni radicalisation to Iran – at least until the ISIS/Daesh-claimed attacks of June 2017, in Tehran, shed light on the limits of the Islamic Republic’s strategy of reliance on Deobandi ulama and Muslim-Brother preachers in the country’s Sunni-peopled peripheries.


Author(s):  
William M. Lewis

This book brings together in compact form a broad scientific and sociopolitical view of US wetlands. This primer lays out the science and policy considerations to help in navigating this branch of science that is so central to conservation policy, ecosystem science and wetland regulation. It gives explanations of the attributes, functions and values of our wetlands and shows how and why public attitudes toward wetlands have changed, and the political, legal, and social conflicts that have developed from legislation intended to stem the rapid losses of wetlands. The book describes the role of wetland science in facilitating the evolution of a rational and defensible system for regulating wetlands and will shed light on many of the problems and possibilities facing those who quest to protect and conserve our wetlands.


This volume reframes the debate around Islam and women’s rights within a broader comparative literature. It examines the complex and contingent historical relationships between religion, secularism, democracy, law, and gender equality. Part I addresses the nexus of religion, law, gender, and democracy through different disciplinary perspectives (sociology, anthropology, political science, law). Part II localizes the implementation of this nexus between law, gender, and democracy, and provides contextualized responses to questions raised in Part I. The contributors explore the situation of Muslim women’s rights vis-à-vis human rights to shed light on gender politics in the modernization of the nation and to ponder over the role of Islam in gender inequality across different Muslim countries.


2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 284-301
Author(s):  
Salvatore Fabio Nicolosi ◽  
Lisette Mustert

In a resolution adopted on 1 February 2018, the European Committee of the Regions noted that a legislative proposal of the European Commission concerning a Regulation that changes the rules governing the EU regional funds for 2014-2020 did not comply with the principle of subsidiarity. Accordingly, the Committee considered challenging the legislative proposal before the Court of Justice if the proposal was formally agreed upon. Although at a later stage the European Commission decided to take into account the Committee’s argument and amended the proposal accordingly, such a context offers the chance to investigate more in detail the role of the Committee of the Regions in the legislative process of the EU and, more in particular, its role as a watchdog of the principle of subsidiarity. This paper aims to shed light on a rather neglected aspect of the EU constitutional practice, such as the potential of the Committee of the Regions to contribute to the legislative process, and answer the question of whether this Committee is the right body to guarantee compliance with the principle of subsidiarity.


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