Organizational Developments Research Articles

Transborder access and territorial sovereignty

The increasing sophistication of malicious cyber activities and the associated challenges with addressing these threats continue to underline the urgency of effective investigative measures for law enforcement authorities. This is especially relevant in investigations where the necessary data to be obtained are stored in a foreign jurisdiction, and access to that data may require additional legal authority. Given that traditional mutual legal assistance treaties are not entirely suitable for the volatile nature of electronic evidence, options for remotely accessing transborder data have been proposed both by nations and international organisations. Despite having been discussed by scholars and policy-makers for almost two decades, the legitimacy of such transborder access has not been readily accepted. In this context, interpretations that pertain both to the scope of jurisdiction to enforce and the principle of territorial sovereignty are particularly fragmented. This article compares the different approaches proposed in academic literature with developments in State practice and international organisations. The article concludes that transborder access can be generally seen as an extraterritorial application of jurisdiction to enforce and therefore, in order to avoid breaching the other State's sovereignty, such investigative activities should have explicit legal grounds.

The Political Economy of Crisis and the Crisis of Political Economy: The Challenge of Sustainability

This tripleC-contribution is a podcast of a talk Graham Murdock gave in the Communication and Media Research Institute's (CAMRI) Research Seminar Series at the University of Westminster on October 15, 2015.AbstractRecent developments in the organisation of capitalism have given renewed urgency to critical political economy’s core concern with the shifting relations between capital, state and civil society and placed issues around communications and culture at the centre of debate. Successive responses to the crisis of capitalism in the 1970s and the 2008 financial crisis have extended marketization, consolidated corporate control over public culture, displaced and casualised labour, escalated product promotion, placed consumption fuelled by personal debt at the centre of models of growth, and generated rapidly widening inequalities in access and agency. At the same time, the political instabilities following the end of the Cold War have licenced a move from selective to saturation surveillance that has given the major capitalist states unprecedented entry into intimate life. The critical political economy culture and communications has seized the moment and produced powerful accounts and critiques of these shifts and their implications for democratic life. The first part of the paper offers a critical overview of this work. With some notable exceptions however, critical political economies of communications have not fully incorporated the climate crisis into their analyses. Yet communication systems, particularly digital systems, are central to the unfolding climate crisis, not simply as central spaces of public information (and misinformation) and debate, but as arrays of infrastructures and machines that consume resources and power and foster patterns of use and disposal that exacerbate problems of waste and pollution and reinforce patterns of inequality, with those least able to cope likely to be the most affected. The second part of the paper expands on this argument The third and final part follows the implications of this analysis through arguing that critical communications policy not only needs to address the problem of curbing corporate and state abuses of control and renew the project of building a non-marketised public communications system, it also needs to ensure that its interventions mitigate rather than exacerbate the problem of climate instability and address social inequalities. The challenge is to develop models and practices that can sustain both social and environmental sustainability.About the Speaker Graham Murdock is Professor of Culture and Economy at Loughborough University. He has been a pioneer in the study of the political economy of media and culture. His recent publications include co-editorship of Money Talks: Media, Markets, Crisis (2015), The Handbook of Political Economy of Communication (2011), The Idea of the Public Sphere (2010), Digital Dynamics: Engagements and Discontinuities (2010).Cover image: By Alex Proimos from Sydney, Australia (E-Waste Recycling Uploaded by russavia) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Trends in Abdominal Aortic and Iliac Aneurysm Repairs in Norway from 2001 to 2013

The objective was to examine trends in abdominal aortic and iliac aneurysm repairs in Norway from 2001 to 2013, and study regional variations and organizational developments in this type of vascular surgery. This was a retrospective study on aortic and iliac aneurysm repairs using data from the Norwegian Patient Register. The vascular centers were categorized by yearly volume of repairs into small (<18), medium (18-49) and large (≥50). Incidence rates were assessed per 100,000 ≥ 60 years. The percentage of endovascular aneurysm repairs (EVAR) was calculated among the conducted repairs at the three categories of centers and the South-Eastern, Western, Central, and Northern Norway Regional Health Authority (NRHA). The national incidence rates of intact repairs per 100,000 ≥ 60 years increased from 57.4 to 65.7 (p < .01). Ruptured repairs decreased from 19.7 to 9.2 (p < .01). The rate of EVAR increased from 6.0 to 29.9 (p < .01) in intact and from 0.4 to 2.5 (p < .01) in ruptured repairs. The vascular centers were reduced from 25 to 16. The rate of EVAR was 27.1% (p < .01) higher at large centers and 7.9% (p < .03) higher at medium centers compared with small centers, and from 11.1% to 15.7% higher (p < .01) at the Central, Western, and Northern NRHA compared with the South-Eastern NRHA, which had the most centers (also in the large category). The national increase in intact EVAR from 10.6% to 43.3% was less compared with many other Western countries. During the study period the rates of intact repairs increased while the ruptured repairs decreased. EVAR was associated with centers performing high volumes of abdominal aortic and iliac aneurysm repairs and regional authorities organized with few centers.

Research methods and methodology towards knowledge creation in accounting

Academic and scientific research embodies the purist way to achieve new knowledge through diversified methods and methodologies. It aims to describe and interpret multiple phenomena and their impact on social and organizational developments. Based on 760 postgraduate completed academic researches, in the scientific fields of accounting, auditing, and management control, a set of variables was identified towards an integrated overview of methods and methodology that historically fit with those scientific fields. This paper aims to evidence whether those methods and methodology depend from the scientific field under research and identify their impact on theory construction and for organizations’ development. Research in financial accounting tends to increase the positivist or mainstream approach while management accounting research is characterized by an integrated descriptive or interpretive approach. Furthermore, case studies are used as way of stregthening the linkage and cooperation between higher education institutions, in particular business schools, and external organizations.

Computational Chemistry in the Pharmaceutical Industry: From Childhood to Adolescence.

Computational chemistry within the pharmaceutical industry has grown into a field that proactively contributes to many aspects of drug design, including target selection and lead identification and optimization. While methodological advancements have been key to this development, organizational developments have been crucial to our success as well. In particular, the interaction between computational and medicinal chemistry and the integration of computational chemistry into the entire drug discovery process have been invaluable. Over the past ten years we have shaped and developed a highly efficient computational chemistry group for small-molecule drug discovery at Bayer HealthCare that has significantly impacted the clinical development pipeline. In this article we describe the setup and tasks of the computational group and discuss external collaborations. We explain what we have found to be the most valuable and productive methods and discuss future directions for computational chemistry method development. We share this information with the hope of igniting interesting discussions around this topic.

Application of Natural Disaster Information for Supply Chain Resilience

Many natural disasters occur annually in the world and the damage ratio of Asia is especially high compared to other regions. Since the Japanese industry is highly dependent on Asian economy, the enterprises in Japan should consider carefully about the negative effect of supply chain disruption and its effective disaster reduction measures against natural disasters in Asian region. This paper consider integrated disaster information by using common numbering system for natural disasters which seem to be effective in promoting disaster risk reduction measures and the possibility of utilizing those common numbering system for BCP and BCM development for organization.

Embryonic Poly(A)-Binding Protein Is Required During Early Stages of Mouse Oocyte Development for Chromatin Organization, Transcriptional Silencing, and Meiotic Competence.

During oocyte maturation, fertilization, and early embryo development until zygotic genome activation (ZGA), transcription is suppressed, and gene expression is dependent upon the timely activation of stored mRNAs. Embryonic poly(A)-binding protein (EPAB) is the predominant poly(A)-binding protein in Xenopus, mouse, and human oocytes and early embryos and is important for regulating translational activation of maternally stored mRNAs. EPAB is critical for early development because Epab(-/-) female mice do not produce mature eggs and are infertile. In this study, we further characterize morphological and molecular aspects of Epab(-/-) oocytes. We demonstrated that Epab(-/-) oocytes are smaller in size, contain peripheral germinal vesicles, and are loosely associated with cumulus cells. The chromatin reorganization of the surrounded nucleolus (SN) configuration and transcriptional silencing that normally occurs during oocyte growth does not occur in Epab(-/-) oocytes. Interestingly, microinjection of Epab mRNA into Epab(-/-) preantral follicle-enclosed oocytes rescues reorganization of chromatin and oocyte maturation to metaphase II. Overall, these results demonstrate an important role for EPAB during oocyte growth and the acquisition of meiotic competence.

Assessing the sociology of sport: On the Latin American Association of Sociocultural Studies in Sport and research development in Latin America

On the 50th anniversary of the ISSA and IRSS, a key scholar in the development of the sociology of sport in Latin America, Miguel Cornejo, reflects on the trajectory, challenges, and future opportunities for the field in light of recent organizational and disciplinary developments. It is noted that much development of the sociology of sport in Latin America can be credited to the inclusion of a “sociology of sport and society” Working Group at the 1999 Congress of the Latin America Association of Sociology; developments at subsequent meetings of that organization were solidified in 2007 with the formation of the Latin American Association of Sociocultural Studies in Sport (ALESDE). Development in the field of inquiry has been complex as Latin America is divided, not only along national borders, but by diverse and distinct local group and ethnic cultures. Early research in the sociology of sport in Latin America focused on football and much was influenced by the work of Elias, Bourdieu, and Dunning. Beyond figurational approaches, diverse theoretical vantage points have had application, including those taking functionalist approaches, using conflict theory and ethnography, and the adoption of symbolic approaches. An ongoing challenge has been to transact in the scholarly community where English is the dominant language. ALESDE has played an important role, mirroring development of more localized professional societies from around the world focused on the sociology of sport, in enabling the voices of Latin American scholars to be part of the larger disciplinary conversation.

Systemic risk and financial regulations: A theoretical perspective

This article inserts the notion of systemic risk into the theoretical foundations of modern finance. By systemic risk, we mean risks because of interdependence among leading firms, in other words complexity. It builds upon the traditional mean-variance approach while reconsidering an inadequately contemplated source of risk: the actual organization of the financial market. As such, we take seriously the idea that some oligopolistic firms may be understood by market participants to be central to the fabric of modern financial markets, and in that sense can be deemed too big to fail. While we believe that much of traditional financial analysis is valid in its own terms, we also believe that important insights can be acquired from melding Modern Portfolio Theory with recent developments in Industrial Organization.

Dynamic Capability as a Business Strategy Enhancing the Business Performance (A Conceptual Approach)

This paper provides perspectives on business strategy and a theoretical rationale for the strategic development of an industry organisation to respond of increasing external environmental pressure. This paper is a conceptual approach using grounded theory, also sending a questioners and interviews were held with 30 FMCG top leaders of organization to explore of perspectives on the strategic development in the industry organisation. The data were complemented by documentary analysis of strategic plans and articles on the industries organisation. Strategic perspectives highlighted the themes of effective organisational development (organisational capability): governance, people development, financial performance, operations, service delivery and external relations; and the dynamic capabilities framework of capability exploitation (extracting maximum economic returns from current resources) and capability exploration (development of new capabilities). The study suggests that environmental pressure moderates the relationship between dynamic capabilities, business strategy and business performance, this perspective provides the much needed theoretical rationale that can be an aid to management undertaking to build competitive industry organisations to increasing the business performance. While the research approach may limit generalisability. The decision maker now have an alternative option to sustained their business, instead of closed their business.

Did anyone notice the transformation of adult social care? An analysis of Safeguarding Adult Board Annual Reports

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report on a part of a study examining the interrelationships between personalisation and safeguarding practice. Specifically the authors aimed to examine how safeguarding practice is affected by the roll out of personalisation in adult social care, particularly when the adult at risk has a personal budget or is considering this. Design/methodology/approach – A sample of annual reports from Adult Safeguarding Boards in England was accessed for content analysis covering the period 2009-2011. One part of this sample of local authorities was selected at random; the other authorities selected had been early adopters of personalisation. The reports were analysed using a pro forma to collect salient information on personalisation that was cross-referenced to identify common themes and differences. Findings – The authors found variable mentions of personalisation as part of the macro policy context reported in the annual reviews, some examples of system or process changes at mezzo level where opportunities to discuss the interface were emerging, and some small reports of training and case accounts relevant to personalisation. Overall these two policy priorities seemed to be more closely related than had been found in earlier research on the interface between adult safeguarding and personalisation. Research limitations/implications – There was wide variation in the annual reports in terms of detail, size and content, and reports for only one year were collected. Developments may have taken place but might not have been recorded in the annual reports so these should not be relied upon as complete accounts of organisational or practice developments. Practical implications – Authors of Safeguarding Adults Board reports may benefit from learning that their reports may be read both immediately and potentially in the future. They may wish to ensure their comments on current matters will be intelligible to possible future readers and researchers. Originality/value – There does not appear to have been any other previous study of Safeguarding Adult Boards’ annual reports. Documentary analysis at local level is under-developed in safeguarding studies.

Professional Development of Project Management for Contractor in the Construction Project: A Review

Professional development programmed can improve the effectiveness and capability of the contractor. A well organized development programme is a critical strategy for construction companies. In coming years, professional development was increasingly playing a significant role in organizational success. Based on the literature and previous research, the study explores the correlation professional development in employee training and motivation practices with task improvement in construction project. It is anticipated that the discussion of these factors will provide a basis for future strategies to promote the development of construction industry and also provide a useful reference for other industry which face similar problems in promoting the applications of professional construction project management in the construction industry. Professional development programmed had gone through the necessary project management training and sufficient knowledge, skills and experience to manage a project successfully.

Retail development in Turkey: An account after two decades of shopping malls in the urban scene

The social, economic and environmental impacts of large-scale retail outlets on existing retail and urban systems have been extensively discussed in the planning literature. This article documents the last two decades of transformation in Turkey's retail sector, which have been characterized by a more organized development of the sector than traditionally existed. We begin our analysis with the late 1980s and early 1990s, when more-liberal and outward-looking policies began to emerge in Turkish economic policy. Changes in the economy and related legislation prepared a base for the subsequent transformations of that decade, culminating, especially in large cities, in the development of shopping malls as alternative retail spaces to traditional markets and stores on a shopping street. We believe that the Turkish case reveals specific aspects of resistance, adaptation and change, and thus needs a detailed account. After providing a general picture of retailing and its transformation in Turkey, we provide empirical evidence from Ankara, the capital city, through which all important dynamics of retailing are exemplified. To this end, we ask the following questions: What are the evolving processes behind the existing location patterns of shopping centres in Ankara? What is the extent of the change in definition of the new public realm? How do street retailers survive? Who are the actors and what are their approaches towards retail planning in Turkey? The answers to these questions may provide implications for urban policy and retail planning in Turkey. The case may also be interesting for countries experiencing similar patterns of change and development, that is, where the globalization process in retailing and consumption-related sites began later than in other countries and observed fast-paced development.

Towards convergence and cooperation in the global development finance regime: closing Africa's policy space?

The revival of China's interest in Africa is often highlighted as being an opportunity to provide African governments with a choice between development partners that may strengthen negotiation leverage and thereby carve out policy space to define and implement policies that affect social and economic development. This article critically reviews the most recent developments in Chinese and Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) approaches to development finance to Africa. It argues that although we can detect a number of incidents that point towards more policy space for African governments, the revival of China's development finance does not fundamentally alter the power relations between African countries and their financiers, as the tendency now is towards convergence and cooperation between China and Development Assistance Committee (DAC) donors—not divergence and competition, which could have created policy space as it did prior to the end of the Cold War. This follows the trend of other ‘emerging’ donors who increasingly play by DAC rules and thereby minimize the future possibility of playing out one partner against the other.

Leadership cultures and discursive hybridisation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of leadership culture and analyse how leadership cultures are produced in higher education reforms, in a hybridised discursive context of traditional academic values and emerging managerialism and leaderism. Design/methodology/approach – Building on a perspective on leadership as a cultural phenomenon emerging in processes in which societal, sectorial and professional discursive resources are invoked, this study adds to earlier studies on how notions of leadership are involved in the transformation of higher education organisations. To this end, the method combines a traditional qualitative study of change initiatives over a long period of time with participative observation. Focusing on two vignettes, the analysis centres on how several discursive resources are drawn upon in daily interaction. Findings – The emergence of hybrid leadership cultures in which several discursive resources are drawn upon in daily interaction is illustrated. This paper emphasises how hybrid cultures develop through confirmation, re-formulation and rejection of discursive influences. Research limitations/implications – An extended empirical material would enable further understanding of what cultural constructions of leadership that become confirmed, re-formulated or rejected. International comparisons would also enrich the analysis. Practical implications – This paper may influence leadership, leadership development and change initiatives in higher education organisation. Social implications – Higher education organisations are crucial for societal development and this paper contributes to better understanding how they are changing. Originality/value – The perspective proposed builds on recent developments in leadership studies and expands the means for focusing on social processes rather than individuals.

Microtuber formation in potato callus

Potato callus has been shown to be capable of de novo organized development including shoot and root formation. A surprising finding in a study of potato (Solanum tuberosum cv. Iwa) callus culture initiated from leaf explants on a medium supplemented with auxin and cytokinin is reported here. Five weeks after callus formation, a low frequency (about 10%) of the callus cultures had formed microtubers. The microtubers initially appeared to be light green and some were elongated. One week later the microtubers had lost much of the green appearance and were full of hairs on the side and with many scattered dark brown spots on the top view. Histological analysis showed that a microtuber was connected with the callus and not with the leaf explant as the callus typically lacked the internal organization of a leaf. This is the first report of the occurrence of microtubers in potato callus cultures.

On religiosity and commercial life

Revolutionary developments in the social organization of capitalism give birth to revolutionary developments in ideas about the economy and value. Just as the industrial revolution in England in the late eighteenth century saw the emergence of political economy and the labor theory of value, and the age of imperialism in the late nineteenth century saw the emergence of economics and the marginal utility theory of value, so the age of globalization in the late twentiethand early twenty-first centuries has seen the emergence of cultural economy and a new posthumanist theory of value that attributes agency to things. What are the assumptions that inform this new posthuman theory of value? Does it dehumanize anthropology, or does it pave the way for an anthropology of the future based on a radically new ethics of possibility? Whatever, the provocations of cultural economy demand a robust debate.

Helping to build a sustainable future through the greening of industry and its networks: knowledge sharing and action promotion

The Greening of Industry Network (GIN) is into its third decade of involvement in integrated environmental, social, and economic debates. This paper introduces GIN to another generation of thinkers and doers, and reintroduces it to participants who have had previous experiences with GIN and/or its activities. GIN's history and the various ‘debates’ sponsored by the organization over the years will be overviewed. We also identify debates and directions that we see continuing or emerging over the next few years, as GIN continues to evolve. Although GIN has been an active player in the debates about the greening of industrial development for two decades, it has evolved as social, technological, organizational, and economic developments changed. Over its two-plus decades, GIN has seen significant shifts in a number of directions, many of these shifts occurring in sporadic and unexpected ways. Climate change, resource depletion, sustainability, technological change with an expanding global communication network, social media, multiple recessions and growth periods, base of pyramid emphasis, a growing academic stream in business and the environment, have all contributed to the various lenses of GIN participants and thereby shaped action and activities in the Network. Change continues. GIN will be there to help understand and address some of these changes as they pertain to the Greening of Industry.

Evaluation of In-Service Training to Increase Employee Productivity of Isfahan University Technology ( IUT )

The present study aims to examine the role of in-service training in increasing employee productivity was Isfahan University of technology. In this regard, the role of in-service training on the job, knowledge of the six factors; increasing employee communication, improve compliance with the regulations, provide the services more desirable to increase job satisfaction, clientele and help to change and organizational developments among university staff were studied. Research methods of descriptive- survey type was scrolling. The present population of Isfahan University research staff in 2013-2014 the number of 576 people formed by using the was estimated to be n =230 sample size sampling by Cochran formula. Method of sampling used in this study was a simple random sampling method. Data were collected by a researcher in the demographic information and questions related to the role of in-service training in increasing productivity, which was included on the basis of 51 closed question response 5 degrees was a compilation score Likert. The total reliability of the questionnaire obtained by cronbach's alpha. Results obtained showed that the influence of in-service training in between employees, Isfahan University students about factors: job knowledge, improve employee communications, observe the regulations, optimum service and will help to change and organizational transformation at the level of the operating medium and about the increasing job satisfaction, less than the average level in the total average amount of in-service training impact of increased efficiency in the medium level.

Strategický management a hybné síly výkonnosti

In the current global competition, companies want to gain competitiveness and to improve their competitive advantages. Strategic management has evolved to help organizations to operate successfully in competitive environment. Strategic management is an organized development of resources of the functional areas: financial, manufacturing, marketing, technological, manpower, innovative etc. in the pursuit of its objectives. The paper is based on primary and secondary research. One of the objectives of the primary research was to analyze and evaluate which performance drivers had impact on the strategic management in the years 2010 - 2012. On the basis of the questionnaire survey it was possible to point out the areas that can have a high impact on the competitiveness of organization. The analysis and classification of these areas is object of this paper. The aim of the paper is also to summarize basic relations among the areas, to deduce partial findings and to formulate some recommendations for entrepreneurial subjects.