Minds Of Leaders Research Articles

Learning from full employment history: The 1945 Australian White Paper in practice

AbstractThe part played by unemployment in the rise to power of Hitler weighed on the minds of leaders in Western democracies. There was a determination to create a world in which large-scale unemployment was abnormal and at worst only a temporary phenomenon. The war had shown that this was possible in a community united to pursue a common goal and the aim was to create such a community in a world free from the horrors of war, by creating communities in which the welfare of every person was important. Australia was remarkably successful in achieving this for 30 years. Its success depended on governments responding to any sustained increase in unemployment by undertaking large increases in public sector expenditure supported by accommodating monetary policy and tax cuts if desirable. In bad times as well as good, there was a determination to ensure that both the incomes and prices paid for necessities by the less well-off did not force anyone to live in poverty. The biggest obstacle to achieving this today is the growth of neoliberalism with its emphasis on ‘freedom’ or giving individuals the ability to act as they please with minimal constraints and an ideological commitment to small government.

The Importance of Engineer Image in Society: Understanding Engineer’s Representation in the Mind of Tunisian Entrepreneurs

This paper aims to investigate a new perspective that can incrementally analyze framework of entrepreneurs’ representations with regards to engineer image. It identifies managers’ attitudes towards the engineer and reveals the real factors that can explain the policy of hiring senior technicians in the Tunisian Cap-Bon industry. The sociological analysis of the representation of the industrial company leader on the issue of executive recruitment engineers had helped to highlight the risks of driving performed changes, the discrepancy between managerial objectives and how implement decisions. The ultimate consequences of this inconsistency can brake recruiting new engineers. Results highlight the influence of the entrepreneurs’ representations on the employment issue. Analysis of attitudes demonstrates that mind of leader towards framework engineer seems irrational, as long as, leader integrates technical uncertainties related to organizational and economic changes. In line with the main study, these social representations of the frame could be made on configurations, opinions, habits, equity positions, varied and often contradictory. If we are willing to embrace the idea that there would be a “change” in entrepreneurs’ representations towards engineers, it might be incrementally achieved through a triple register: cognitive, strategic and ethical.

Governance Ethics & Business: Kenyan Growing Economy at Cross-road in the 21<sup>st</sup> Century

Governance Ethics and business: Kenya at a Cross Road in the 21 st Century is an intellectual investigation into what has not worked well so far despite all attributed good reasons. The author has touched on spheres of public behavioural conduct in business affairs to reveal the rot in the entire system. The exploration is backed by tangible cases of how ethical standards are influencing the national economy. The essay acknowledges and compliments reform process and affirmative action especially the legal transformation. But also he admits that change of law and adjustments within the institutions have not transformed governance, public accountability, and work ethics. Reading from the essay one shall get to understand that ethical problems are not a question of having good laws in place but also change of attitude, and winning hearts and minds of leaders.

Friends in Need? The Causes and Consequences of Reliability in Military Alliances

America's Allies and War: Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. By Jason W. Davidson. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. 250 pp., $81.00 hardcover (ISBN-13: 09078-0-230-61482-6). The Shadow of the Past: Reputation and Military Alliances before the First World War. By Gregory D. Miller. Ithaca, NY, London: Cornell University Press, 2011. 234 pp., $42.75 hardcover (ISBN-13: 978-0-801-45031-0). Throughout history, states have formed military alliances to offset power imbalances, to fend off threats, to manage potential foes, and to act on shared goals and values. Working within the well-established tradition of alliance theories, but also challenging some of their limitations, Jason Davidson's America's Allies and War and Gregory Miller's The Shadow of the Past raise new and important questions for the long-term politics of alliance relations. Specifically, they offer new insights that go beyond the initial formation of military partnerships by examining the dynamics of alliances during and after the use of force. Together, they expand on and add nuance to recent studies on not only the formation of alliances but also their management, cohesion, and durability. They effectively challenge conventional wisdom on the free-riding nature of US allies, and the exaggerated effects of reputation and credibility in the minds of leaders and policymakers. At the most basic level, both books share a common purpose: to explore why allies cooperate in some crises but not in others. But, they each add a new twist to this long-standing question. Davidson is interested in examining the different mix of strategic and domestic political factors that produce varied support among different European allies for American military operations abroad. Miller asks why some states are chosen for cooperative agreements to begin with, and identifies the long-term benefits of demonstrating timely and sufficient support for an ally (and the costs of not doing so). Davidson and Miller also discuss different types and levels of military and political support and why they matter. Their more fine-grained dependent variables range from types of support during military operations in America's Allies and War , to variations in alliance terms due to perceptions of past behavior in The Shadow of the Past . In America's Allies and …

Some Legal Aspects of Energy Security in the Relations between EU and Russia

The need for a sustainable, secure and competitive energy supply has long been recognized within the Community, and has been addressed on numerous occasions, notably in the Green Papers elaborated by the Commission in 2000 and 2006. Recent supply crises and rapidly escalating fuel prices have focused the minds of leaders across the European Union, as well as those of businesses and individual energy consumers. Energy policy transcends a range of different policy areas, including competition, transport, environment and energy itself. Decisions relating to energy policy in Europe are primarily within the remit of individual Member State governments, with the European Commission’s powers limited to two specific areas (creation of the European single market and matters relating to nuclear safety and security under the EURATOM Treaty). The extent of the transfer of powers towards Europe is clearly a critical decision point and in practice a sensitive balance is likely to be required between those matters for which the Commission should have responsibility and those where Member State governments retain sole authority. European officials are putting into evidence their belief that Europe’s energy predicament is acute and mention energy security as a priority issue for the Common Foreign and Security Policy. Policy commitments say that energy strategy must move beyond the internal sphere and become systematically a part of EU external relations. The Commission’s 2006 Energy Green Paper promised “a better integration of energy objectives into broader relations with third countries”.

Nuclear Hearts and Minds

The Psychology of Nuclear Proliferation: Identity, Emotions, and Foreign Policy. By Jacques E. C. Hymans Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. 273 pp., $75.00 cloth (ISBN: 0-521-85076-2), $29.99 paper (ISBN: 0-521-61625-5). Nuclear proliferation is one of the most profound security challenges of the twenty-first century. Jacques Hymans' The Psychology of Nuclear Proliferation takes on this issue with an innovative, interdisciplinary approach that centers the study of nuclear proliferation on the hearts and minds of leaders. The book combines a sophisticated theoretical framework and multimethod research design with a rich set of case studies. This is one of those rare academic works published at the very time that it can be most beneficial to both the discipline and the policy arena. Hymans effectively argues that decisions to develop, or not to develop, nuclear weapons are “revolutionary,” subjective, and made by leaders who are conscious that their decisions involve the ultimate weapon. To systematize the study of proliferation at the individual level of analysis, Hymans creates a typology of “national identity conceptions.” He defines a national identity conception as “an individual's understanding of the nation's identity—his or her sense of what the nation naturally stands for and how high it naturally stands, in comparison to others in the international arena” (pp. 12–13). Hymans adds that these identity conceptions derive from “a set of deep-seated, essentially unfalsifiable beliefs about the ‘true’ nature of the nation,” which are developed through comparison and contrast with “key comparison others” (p. 13). National identity conceptions are measured along two dimensions (solidarity and status) that reflect leaders' beliefs about the …

Effective asset management maximizes your return on investment (ROI) and customer satisfaction

Asset management is a critical link in balancing overall product or service delivery cost of ownership to achieve and sustain customer satisfaction. Current drivers for asset management make it one of the most critical issues on the minds of leaders today. Many are overwhelmed by the enormity of the task they face and they are concerned about their company's ability to design, implement and sustain an effective asset management program. This paper provides practical guidance on the asset management concept, how it fits into the overall business model, benefits to be achieved once a program is implemented, suggested performance measures and an approach to implementation.

Judgeability in person perception: The confidence of leaders.

Leaders are often expected to evaluate their team workers. In the present study, the authors investigated the hypothesis that leaders express social judgments with more confidence than subordinates. Leadership is assumed to play the role of a meta-informational cue leading people to feel entitled to judge. In Study 1, supervisors in a Portuguese firm expressed their evaluations of colleagues and superiors. In Study 2, leadership was attributed on the basis of alleged competence. In Study 3, leadership was explicitly attributed on a random basis. The results of the 3 studies support the hypothesis and are discussed within the framework of social judgeability theory (J. P. Leyens, V. Y. Yzerbyt, & G. Schadron, 1992, 1994). The confidence of leaders may become a norm that is constructed by others. Practical implications are discussed. To the same extent that leadership often resides in the eyes of followers, confidence may originate in the mind of leaders.

Art in Hymns

Recently a promising young violinist wrote back to the clergyman of the church where he had been encouraged to develop his talent, to the effect that wherever he went in musical centres in America he heard nothing more inspiring to himself as an artist than the majestic harmoines and melodies of the great Christian hymns. There is something about them that grips the deepest elements of the artistic soul. Nearly every great hymn came directly out of the very life-blood of the author, and the same may be said of the music to which these powerful lyrics are set. For a long time it has been in the mind of leaders of song in America, that great non-sectarian hymns and their stirring musical accompaniments should be more widely popularized both in schools and in community singing. It has been discovered that there are plenty of hymns of this character, new and old, that are unobjectionable to Catholics and Protestants alike and a multitude of them are inoffensive to our Jewish friends. This would be true of all the musical