People In Leadership Positions Research Articles

AI-Assisted Decision-Making and Risk Evaluation in Uncertain Environment Using Stochastic Inverse Reinforcement Learning: American Football as a Case Study

In this work, we focus on the development of an AI technology to support decision making for people in leadership positions while facing uncertain environments. We demonstrate an efficient approach based on a stochastic inverse reinforcement leaning (IRL) algorithm constructed by hybridizing the conventional Max-entropy IRL and mixture density network (MDN) for the prediction of transition probability. We took the case study of American football, a sports game with stochastic environment, since the number of yards gainable on the next offence in real American football is usually uncertain during strategy planning and decision making. The expert data for IRL are built using the American football 2017 season data in National Football League (NFL). The American football simulation environment was built by training MDN using the annual NFL data to generate the state transition probability for IRL. Under the framework of Max-Entropy IRL, optimal strategy was successfully obtained through a learnt reward function by trial-and-error communication with the MDN environment. To precisely evaluate the validity of the learnt policy, we have conducted a risk-return analysis and revealed that the trained IRL agent showed higher return and lower risk than the expert data, indicating that it is possible for the proposed IRL algorithm to learn superior policy than the one derived directly from the expert teaching data. Decision-making in an uncertain environment is a general issue, ranging from business operation to management. Our work presented here will likely serve as a general framework for optimal business operation and risk management and contribute especially to the portfolio’s optimization in the financial and energy trading market.

Promoting Your Scholarly Work to Increase Awareness and Impact.

Promoting Your Scholarly Work to Increase Awareness and Impact.

РОЛЬ КОММУНИСТИЧЕСКОЙ ПАРТИИ КИТАЯ В ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОМ УПРАВЛЕНИИ КИТАЙСКОЙ НАРОДНОЙ РЕСПУБЛИКИ

The article describes the role of the Chinese Communist Party in ensuring the political stability of the country. The authors note that in order to understand the specifics of the political system of the People's Republic of China, it is necessary to pay attention to the works of classical Chinese philosophers Confucius, Meng-tzu, Shang Yang. It is noted that the political system of China is quite specific. It includes a lot of different bodies, the main one of which is the Communist Party of China. According to the basic law of China-the Constitution, it is this party that is the force that directs and governs the entire life of the country. Getting party membership is a sure way to the top of your career, because in China they try to take party people to leadership positions. The article points out that intra-party relations are based on the ideas of hierarchy, paternalism, mass character. According to the Chinese, paternalism is manifested in the fact that the party tells the ordinary population whose interests they need to protect, as well as the fact that the party governs the country not on the basis of the universal free will of the people, but on the basis that only the party can know the real interests of the people. The principle of the mass line implies that the partapparat is in constant contact with the ordinary population. The task of party members is to accept ideas that come from the ordinary population to improve some issues, properly process them, and then present them to the population. The scope of the Chinese Communist Party is extremely wide, which is necessary to retain power. It is the party that puts people in leadership positions in the army, political authorities, and security agencies. The party also has a huge influence over the mass media that are published in China. It is important to note that officially the party is separated from the power structures, in practice it is not. As a rule, all the top people in the political life of China also hold high party positions. This makes it possible for the party to completely lead the political life of the state.

Now You See Me, Now You Don’t: A Conceptual Model of the Antecedents and Consequences of Leader Impostorism

Impostorism, a phenomenon whereby a person perceives that the role they occupy is beyond their capabilities and puts them at risk of exposure as a “fake,” has attracted plentiful attention in the empirical literature and popular media. However, despite evidence that impostorism is frequently experienced by people in leadership positions, there has been little consideration of why this happens. In this theoretical article, we explain why formal leadership roles—roles that are characterized by elevated expectations, high visibility, and high levels of responsibility—are fertile ground for impostorism experiences. We also discuss how the associated self-conscious emotions of shame and fear, can increase leaders’ risk-aversion and enhance leader role performance, yet at the same time drive emotional exhaustion, and reduce their motivation to lead. This can ultimately inhibit leaders from seeking, claiming, and thriving in leadership roles. We offer individual-, dyadic-, and organization-level contextual characteristics that can either enhance or reduce this phenomenon. We also discuss how supportive organizations can mitigate leadership impostorism. Furthermore, we highlight how women and minority-status leaders may be more vulnerable to this experience and conclude by suggesting the practical implications of the leader impostorism phenomenon for individuals and organizations.

Valence–Instrumentality–Expectancy Model of Motivation as an Alternative Model for Examining Ethical Leadership Behaviors

Incessant occurrences of character failure of people in leadership positions that have characterized organizations in recent years call for critical examination of leadership behaviors. The Social Learning Theory and Trickle-Down Model are some of the common approaches previously used to analyze ethical leadership behaviors. However, the challenges with how these models inspire ethical behaviors call for further examination of the issue. Using a multidisciplinary integrative literature review, we present Vroom’s Valence–Instrumentality–Expectancy (VIE) Model of Motivation as an alternative model for examining ethical leadership behaviors. The VIE Model provides clarity regarding how leaders are motivated to behave ethically. We utilize ideas from the VIE model in conjunction with Starratt’s Three-Step Approach to develop a unique framework for examining ethical leadership behaviors. Our model highlights the importance of a leader’s values in creating organizational ethical values that eventually translate into professional ethical values. Using the motivational approach to inspire ethical leadership will drive organizational members to internalize ethical behavior as a conviction rather than complying with a set rule.

Money Moves the Mare: The Response of Community-Based Organizations to Health Care's Embrace of Social Determinants.

Recent health policies incentivize health care providers to collaborate with community-based organizations (CBOs), such as food pantries and homeless shelters, to address patients' social determinants of health (SDOH). The perspectives of health care leaders on these policy changes have been studied, but the perspectives of CBO managers have not. Our research question was: How are CBOs in Massachusetts perceiving and responding to new Medicaid policies that encourage collaboration between health care organizations and CBOs? We interviewed 46 people in leadership positions at CBOs in Massachusetts for approximately an hour each. We analyzed these data abductively, meaning that we iterated between inductively coding transcripts and consulting existing theories and frameworks. We found evidence of a knowing-doing gap among CBOs. Even though CBOs value their distinctiveness and autonomy from health care, they have undertaken a series of organizational changes in response to the new Medicaid policy that make their organizations appear more like health care organizations. These changes include adopting new performance metrics, hiring clinical staff to the board and senior management positions, and using medical language to describe nonmedical work. Drawing on institutional theory, we suggest that the nonprofits undertake such changes in an effort to demonstrate legitimacy to health care organizations, who may be able to provide new sources of critically needed revenue. Massachusetts CBOs perceive health systems as potential sources of revenue, due in part to an ongoing Medicaid redesign that encourages the integration of health and social services. This perception is driving CBOs to appear more like health care organizations, but the impacts of these changes on welfare remain unknown.

How Error Prevention and Organizational Silence Influences Managers’ Self-Perception – A Repertory Grid Study

The topic of self-perception within management has become a subject catching more and more attention. The necessity for leaders’ self-awareness when aiming at high employee satisfaction and productivity still bears a lot of research potential. Developing self-awareness and efficacy are paths that do not have an end or a quota to reach. It is a rather mindset like a tank that can always be filled up more. Leaders’ self-awareness is crucial to improve their abilities and much more inaccurate self-perception can become harmful for an organisations’ performance. Surprisingly, the influence of managers’ self-perception on leadership behaviour and leadership effectiveness has only been studied little in contemporary literature. The main purpose of this article is to identify organizational factors that influence leader’s self-perception and how an organization can develop this characteristic of their managers. Therefore, this paper aims at identifying corporate cultural causes for managers’ distorted self-perception. This task leads evidently to the topic of organizational silence, which is understood as the absence of upward-directed feedback of employees’ input of ideas. Consequently, a corporate culture inherited by organizational silence impacts a manager’s self-perception. Additionally, the contextual literature research on self-perception guided to the subject of error management. It becomes evident that error management functions as a link between organizational silence and managers’ overestimation. Summarizing the article studies the interlinkages of these three research areas and combined them with a new research and hypothesis model tested on a repertory grid data set consisting of 782 personal constructs of a specific corporate culture. Individual construct psychology was chosen as an investigative methodology to ensure unbiased qualitative results. This psychologically grounded methodology is proven to make socially desirable results unlikely due to the intuitive interview structure. The results of this research give practitioners advice for developing corporate culture and self-perception and efficacy of people in leadership positions.

Social media commenters’ understanding of the antecedents of teacher-targeted bullying

This article reports on the findings of a small-scale, extant, qualitative social media research study on commenters’ understanding of the antecedents of teacher-targeted bullying. Comments on an article posted by Sarah Sorge (2013) on The Educator’s Room were used as data source. Guided by an ecological model and the attribution theory, the study identified victim and perpetrator attributes, colleagues’ indifference and unprofessionalism, school management’s lack of leadership and failure to address the problem, as well as socio-cultural factors and policy changes as antecedents of teacher-targeted bullying. It is argued that conventional teacher-learner power relations are flawed due to the unsupportive, even antagonistic attitudes of parents, colleagues, society at large, people in leadership positions and policy makers towards the victims of teacher-targeted bullying. It is concluded that, despite ethical dilemmas, the advent of the Internet and social media has created opportunities for researchers to use comments posted on the Internet as a data source to investigate teacher-targeted bullying.

Special Report: Asian American Hate Incidents—A Co-occurring Epidemic During COVID-19

<i>Special Report:</i> Asian American Hate Incidents—A Co-occurring Epidemic During COVID-19

Hubris and Sciences

There has been an increasing awareness of the importance of leadership and decision making, including scientists and academics, over recent times. By whom and how decisions are made can have serious implications across all levels of society. Several people have been successful in their life and have been inflicted by excessive pride and self-confidence. There are times when the manifestations of such behaviours demonstrate noticeable signs of narcissism and on extreme cases, hubris. Hubris is an old concept originated from the Greek mythology. The risk of hubris affects politicians, leaders in business, scientists, academia, the military, entertainers, athletes and doctors (among many others). Power, especially absolute and unchecked power, is intoxicating and is manifested behaviourally in a variety of ways, ranging from amplified cognitive functions to lack of inhibition, poor judgment, extreme narcissism, deviant behaviour, and even cruelty. Hubristic behaviour of overconfidence, extreme pride together with an unwillingness to disregard advice makes powerful people in leadership positions to over-reach themselves with negative consequences for themselves and others. As the dangerous consequences of hubristic behaviours become more apparent and well described it is imperative that individuals, organisations and governments act to prevent such phenomena. Responsible leaders, including acclaimed scientists should exercise greater humility to the complexity and inherent uncertainty of their activities and strive to seek out and challenge hubristic behaviours.

Hubris and Sciences.

There has been an increasing awareness of the importance of leadership and decision making, including scientists and academics, over recent times. By whom and how decisions are made can have serious implications across all levels of society. Several people have been successful in their life and have been inflicted by excessive pride and self-confidence. There are times when the manifestations of such behaviours demonstrate noticeable signs of narcissism and on extreme cases, hubris. Hubris is an old concept originated from the Greek mythology. The risk of hubris affects politicians, leaders in business, scientists, academia, the military, entertainers, athletes and doctors (among many others). Power, especially absolute and unchecked power, is intoxicating and is manifested behaviourally in a variety of ways, ranging from amplified cognitive functions to lack of inhibition, poor judgment, extreme narcissism, deviantbehaviour, and even cruelty. Hubristic behaviour of overconfidence, extreme pride together with an unwillingness to disregard advice makes powerful people in leadership positions to over-reach themselves with negative consequences for themselves and others. As the dangerous consequences of hubristic behaviours become more apparent and well described it is imperative that individuals, organisations and governments act to prevent such phenomena. Responsible leaders, including acclaimed scientists should exercise greater humility to the complexity and inherent uncertainty of their activities and strive to seek out and challenge hubristic behaviours.

Određivanje osobina ličnosti i karaktera lidera, njihova selekcija i efikasnost u tekstilnoj industriji

The approach to management as a set of specificity means is that organizations will work better if people in leadership positions have certain traits. Practical but essential task of leaders is to create new approaches and find new areas to explore. The hypothesis underlying this procedure is that the personality traits of leaders have a major impact on increasing their effectiveness and efficiency in the textile industry in Serbia. In the study, the results were given for the age structure, professional structure of the leaders, social origin of the leader, the leader position in society, the success of the work of managers, the importance of some roles of managers. Knowledge and skills are acquired and developed through theory and practical experience, while some specific skills are a starting feature that an individual has or does not have. A leader is a profession that requires a person to possess certain character traits to be successful, in order to successfully carry out the tasks.

The Ethics of Affective Leadership: Organizing Good Encounters Without Leaders

ABSTRACT:This article addresses the fundamental question of what is ethical leadership by rearticulating relations between leaders and followers in terms of “affective leadership.” The article develops a Spinozian conception of ethics which is underpinned by a deep suspicion of ethical systems that hold obedience as a primary virtue. We argue that the existing research into ethical leadership tends to underplay the ethical capacities of followers by presuming that they are in need of direction or care by morally superior leaders. In contrast, affective leadership advocates a profoundly political version of ethics, which involves people in the pursuit of joyful encounters that augment our capacity to affect and be affected by others. Instead of being led by people in leadership positions, we are led by active affections that enhance our capacity for moral action.

A research-informed model for corporate social responsibility: towards accountability to impacted stakeholders

An Australian case study is presented of an ongoing conflict between Alcoa World Alumina, a multi-national mining company and the impacted stakeholders of Yarloop, a small rural community in Western Australia. The conflict has been subject to research by the author since the early 2000s and is the impetus for developing a model for corporate social responsibility (CSR). The model emphasises engaging impacted stakeholders in dialogue with powerful stakeholders to achieve social justice. This involves a three way set of relationships with key people in leadership positions from the relevant government departments, the corporation’s management group and the impacted stakeholders.The model is premised on an ethic of love approach which utilises the ideas of social justice, social sustainability, and the social pre-cautionary principle. An outline is presented of these ideas as well as a set of inter-linked strategies which are responsive to power inequalities in conflict situations. The ideas and strategies can guide efforts to address the social costs incurred by the impacted community stakeholders. This will involve a discerning commitment to work towards accountable government, sustainable business practices and social justice for impacted stakeholders. The approach requires a cultural shift in the business sector, and wider society, to equally value people, place and profit.

Political Action and Your Library Association

Political action. Libraries. The two seem to intersect more often than one might expect (unless one is a library worker, supporter, or patron; in which case it doesn’t seem terribly unusual). People in our line of work are often called upon to assume the mantle of library-worker-activists. These calls to action affect us in our various roles as professionals, as private citizens, and as members of the Oregon Library Association. Our association supports Oregon libraries, the people who work in them, and the communities we serve. That commitment casts a wide net in a large state full of people with diverse backgrounds and different political ideas on both local and national levels. We may have a spectrum of personal political beliefs, but we have a unifying body of core values as library workers. The people in leadership positions in the association, such as the president, vice president, and other executive board members are elected to serve you, the OLA members. We all work hard to speak up and stand up for Oregon libraries. That’s definitely a team effort. This work is ongoing, and we have guiding principles to direct us when issues appear murky.

Personal Charters

It is very difficult to be an effective leader if you don't know who you are and what you want. People in leadership positions are expected to clarify things for others––purpose, vision, values, strategy, and goals. This technical note describes several fundamentals of an effective organizational and work group charter including the important elements of a personal charter. Once leaders have a clear vision for themselves, they are prepared to make better career, lifestyle, and professional decisions.

Khoziaistvo and Khoziaeva: The Properties and Proprietors of the Red Army, 1941–45

Khoziaistvo and KhoziaevaThe Properties and Proprietors of the Red Army, 1941–45 Brandon Schechter (bio) In his epic novel about the Great Patriotic War, Zhivye i mertvye (The Living and the Dead), the war correspondent Konstantin Simonov reflected on the paradoxical rise of a previously civilian concept with dubious connections to socialism in the ranks of the Red Army. Simonov found the word khoziaistvo had come into vogue, and yet this was a slippery term, ranging from a colloquial expression for male genitalia to the national economy (narodnoe khoziaistvo).1 Often translated as economy, housekeeping, or farm, khoziaistvo, which in some contexts sounded natural in a socialist state, has close ties with khoziain (master, proprietor, boss; plural khoziaeva), a much more problematic understanding for Marxists.2 Before and during the revolution, Lenin had called on the toiling masses to overthrow their masters (khoziaeva), yet in a total war to save the Soviet Union, Red Army soldiers used the word khoziain to describe their own commanders. Somehow, a [End Page 487] markedly un-Marxist understanding of khoziaistvo and khoziain had come to sound natural in the army defending the socialist state:3 Khoziaistvo is not a military word, more of a rustic peasant [muzhitskoe] phrase, and before the war it was not part of the military way, but during the war it somehow quietly took root. First it came about as a means of camouflage—so as not to give away the number of a regiment or a division or army—someone’s khoziaistvo … by the name [of the commander], and that’s that: khoziaistvo and khoziaistvo…. And later it gradually became the most martial, necessary word. It struck at the heart of the matter. Really, what else would you call everything that you have on hand to wage war, whether you are a big fish or a small fry? Everything that you need not just for war but for people at war—you have it all on you. What you fight with and travel on and dig in the earth with, and what you feed people, give them to drink, wash them with, and bind wounds with—you should have it all with you in your khoziaistvo. Everything. From the complement of ammunition to the soldier’s individual bandage in his overcoat. And if you don’t have something or don’t have enough of something, that means you are a bad khoziain.4 The entrenchment of a peasant concept tied to property in the Red Army is both unsurprising and quite jolting. On the one hand, the majority of people serving in the army, including its commanders, were of peasant origin. On the other hand, the state had expropriated individual farms and essentially destroyed the traditional peasant way of life in the decade prior to the war. The Bolsheviks ended independent farming, forcing peasants onto kolkhozes (kollektivnoe khoziaistvo), taxing them heavily, and taking away their ability to act as the masters of the land. Yet when war began and people drawn from all walks of Soviet society—including millions of peasants—gave their lives to defend the country, soldiers were increasingly encouraged to see their commanders, and even themselves, as khoziaeva.5 Military leadership embraced this rhetoric heartily. Units were often personified as their commander when describing movements in battle (“Zhukov is advancing”), and soldiers were simply identified by their commander’s last name (e.g., Panfilovtsy—“Panfilov’s men”). By the middle of the war, khoziain was a common address for commanders, one that had taken [End Page 488] on an unmistakably old regime feel.6 How do we explain the emergence of khoziaeva in the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army? How could a socialist state abide by the return of a concept of property so similar to that of the peasantry that it had recently subjugated and the lords it had dispossessed? The answer to these questions can be found in the convergence of prewar practices and rhetoric with the expansion of the number of people in leadership positions during the war. The war would prove to be the Bolsheviks’ greatest test, and the victory that came from it supplanted the revolution as the foundation of...

Lifelong Emergency? The Food Bank in an Era of Institutionalized Food Charity in Toronto

Abstract The first Canadian food banks started in the 1980s because of increasing poverty due to the economic crisis. They mainly shared the common understanding that their work was intended as a supplement, not as long-term solution to food insecurity. However, three decades later, neither food banks nor food insecurity have disappeared. Today, the proliferation of the food charity system begs the question of how the new food banks view their work in the era of institutionalized food charity. The data consist of eight key informant interviews carried out in 2014 with nine people in leadership positions in the recently initiated food banks in Toronto. The interviews were analysed by applying Goffman’s frame analysis. The interviewees discussed their work through four frames: feeding the hungry, building the community, advocating for change, and putting religious beliefs and teachings from pulpit to practice. The faith frame of food banking interlocks the other three frames. Food assistance is heavily root...

A Study of Empathy and Self-Confidence and Their Effect on Job Satisfaction of Teachers

In the education process, teacher is the main pillar. Teachers are the most important group of professionals for our nation's future. His place in the society is of vital importance. The personality of a teacher also influences the students too much basically good teacher should have same basic personality qualities i.e. he must be visionary, catalyst, troubleshooter, realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, independent & a good trainer. The emotional establishment of teachers hence carves an everlasting effect on pupil's personality. Therefore it is essential to understand the personality characteristics of a teacher which are related to his or her job satisfaction. A fixed way of teaching fails to achieve a variety of instructional objectives, moreover the students have a multi dimensional personality and for meeting this two ends a teacher should use different style, strategy of teaching to match and fulfill the objectives of teaching. Hence keeping this view in mind researcher selects the problem and delineates the concepts accordingly.Significance of the studyThough a teacher has certain teaching skills vise the skills of introducing a lesson probing questions, illustrating with examples, using black board and achieving closure in real classroom situations and luck of personality traits he cannot satisfied with his or her job hence, researcher tried to search particular personality characteristics i.e. Empathy self concept which arc closely related to job satisfaction. Personality traits of primary teachers especially in view of the enlarged role they would have to play and the new responsibilities, they would have to assume when elementary education became universal for children in the age group 6-14. The personality of a teacher influences the students too much. Many personality traits play an important role in the acquisition of teaching skills. And the skilled teacher would be more satisfied about his job. Hence a personality test may prove to be helpful for the prediction of job satisfaction of primary teachers. The association between job satisfaction and personality characteristics is strong and significant. Keeping these views in mind, a research attracts this situation and selects the same problem for study.Statement of the problemA study of Empathy and self-confidence and their effect on job satisfaction of teachers.Objectives of the study* To analyze and evaluate selected personality characteristics i.e. empathy and self- confidence which were common in the primary teachers.* To examine the functioning of empathy and self-confidence and job satisfaction of primary teachers.* To examine the gender differences in job satisfactionHypotheses of the study* Teachers who posses more Empathy trait, have more job satisfaction.* Teachers, who have more self-confidence trait, have more job satisfaction.* A Job satisfaction is more in female primary teachers than male primary teachers.VariablesIn this study characteristics of personality are independent variable and job satisfaction is dependent variable.Independent variablesEmpathy and self-confidence.Dependent variableJob satisfaction.Operational dejinitions of variableEmpathy: this variable known as interpersonal sensitivity, has been considered important for people in leadership positions. This involves the realization and understanding of another person's feelings, needs and suffering. It is a self conscious effort to share and comprehended accurately the presumed consciousness of another person.Self-confidence: To be a leader in any situation an individual must appear to make positive contribution to the group. According to same self-confidence has a positive relationship with leadership.* Job satisfaction: Job satisfaction has been defined as pleasurable emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one's job; an affective reaction to one's job and an attitude towards one's job. …

Debt to Society: Accounting for Life under Capitalism by Miranda Joseph (review)

Reviewed by: Debt to Society: Accounting for Life under Capitalism by Miranda Joseph Jessica E. Birch DEBT TO SOCIETY: Accounting for Life under Capitalism. By Miranda Joseph. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 2014. In Debt to Society: Accounting for Life under Capitalism, Miranda Joseph engages in a critical analysis of accounting practices related to debt and credit. The “accounting practices” Joseph explores cover a wide range, including those related to the Occupy Wall Street spinoff Strike Debt, the literal monetary debt of citizens and corporations, [End Page 112] the presumed debt of incarcerated citizens implied within the title, connections between accounting and accountability, normative gender ideals, and the current state of higher education. The text complicates and problematizes academic discourse regarding conceptualizations of depersonalization and quantification, but may range too broadly to satisfy readers’ desire for concrete analysis of any one particular topic. Grounded in critical theory/cultural studies, the book follows in the interdisciplinary tradition of scholars like David Harvey and Lisa Duggan in theorizing the construction of neoliberal normativity. The subtitle would more accurately describe the focus of the text if it were “life under neoliberalism,” as the focus of Joseph’s analysis is on “discursive materials” that “are artifacts of the current conjuncture, frequently named neoliberalism” (xi). Joseph begins with her theoretical underpinnings and methodology, noting that “this project is indebted to [Lauren] Berlant” (xvi) and Berlant’s work appears to provide a very significant contribution to the theoretical grounding of the text. The book contests formulations of the contemporary financial market as problematic due to being “depersonalized and globalized” (9); Joseph argues that the “financial structure” in reality “depends on a disrespectful regard for particular borrowers” (25). In support of this, she provides a historical contextualization of accounting practices, beginning with double-entry bookkeeping and its creation of a system of credits and debits as a regulatory force. From there, Joseph considers the relationship between accounting and justice, discussing the history of debtors’ prison, penality, and slavery, and their implications for present-day racially unequal incarceration rates. Additionally, the book follows in the tradition of feminist standpoint theory by addressing how Joseph’s own positionality influences her approach, as well as consistently attending to the differential impacts of race, gender, and class. These influences are particularly apparent in the third chapter, where Joseph examines how discourses of responsibility portray poverty, and in the final chapter. Between them is a chapter on the gendered dynamics of consumerism, which may be the most productive for feminist scholars. (Note: This chapter previously appeared in Social Politics.) Although Joseph suggests that one of her goals is to explore possible alternative methods of accounting that might promote justice, this is the weakest aspect of the text. The book provides a brilliantly innovative methodological approach with strong contextualization, both in terms of history and theory, but offers no clear path away from the crushing influence of neoliberal accounting practices. This is not necessarily a significant flaw, as offering alternatives seems beyond the reasonable scope of the work. One of the book’s strongest features, in fact, is Joseph’s frequent acknowledgement, both theoretical and concrete, of the unresolved tensions within resistance to and acceptance of dominant paradigms. This makes the final chapter, which focuses on the university and interdisciplinarity in the context of Joseph’s position as chair of her university budget and planning committee, the most compelling, as Joseph discusses how people in leadership positions “are quickly absorbed,” “speaking and spoken by the dominant neoliberal discourse” (120), despite their knowledge and experience. Debt to Society is an ambitious, broadly-ranging text, and an important one. Joseph points out that this project engages much more significantly with “quantitative knowledge production than do most feminist cultural studies projects” (xvi), but this is equally true for the humanities—and specifically cultural studies—overall. The book’s theoretical density, conceptual complexity, and dizzying array of references require a thorough grounding in cultural studies, making the text unsuitable for use in most classrooms, and readers may find the ratio of theory to analysis lopsided. However, Joseph’s critique of the disciplinary force of accounting practices is an insightful and compelling discussion [End Page 113] of heretofore...