All you need to do is email Jennifer.Ellis@tandf.co.uk with the subject heading #HRDcomp and tell her your main areas of interest.
Go to our facebook page to see more photos from the conference: www.facebook.com/bme.routledge
To celebrate last week's University Forum for Human Resource Development conference, we would like to offer everyone the chance to win copies of these top three titles from the series Routledge Studies in Human Resource Development:
Action Learning, Leadership and Organizational Development in Public Services Edited by Clare Rigg, Sue Richards
New Frontiers in HRD Edited by Monica Lee, Jim Stewart, Jean Woodall
Rethinking Strategic Learning By Russ Vince
All you need to do is email Jennifer.Ellis@tandf.co.uk with the subject heading #HRDcomp and tell her your main areas of interest.
Go to our facebook page to see more photos from the conference: www.facebook.com/bme.routledge
How did this project begin?
When recruited to my post I was given the task of creating 3 innovative centre of excellence with an engineering /technology skills base. As I have an environmental management interest, these projects were always going to have an environmental bias. One of these ideas was the Solar Meadow. The idea started with just using enough solar panels to cover the energy usage of the college campus. So the project began with a draft proposal for 500 panels positioned in a one acre site. I then had a fortunate discussion with a representative of SSE (Scottish and Southern Energy) who offered to invest in the project but were only able to do this if the project was of a certain size. Following a few more meetings a new proposal emerged for 2500 panel to be positioned in a 5 acre site that now generates enough energy for 5 college campuses. And so the project was born.
How long did it take?
Due to necessary earthworks the project was planned to take 12 months but with the excessive amounts of rain we experienced during this period, it took 18 months. The installation of the technology took only 4 weeks.
Could you tell us a little about the ups and downs of undertaking such a project?
The biggest down was dealing with two large utility companies when one has encroached onto the others territory. I had to use up all of my ‘congeniality vouchers’ to get both sides to make the grid connection by March 2013 or the project would not have qualified for full ROC’s funding.
Another down was having a 5 acre brown coloured swimming pool for a large part of the project period.
The biggest up was meeting the connection deadline and seeing the looks of amazement on visitors’ faces when they see the project for the first time.
You told radio's "Good Morning Scotland" that some people thought you were "mad". What do you think was behind their diagnosis?
BBC Radio Scotland first interviewed me about this project on a dark winters morning (7.30am) next to an over grown field in the pouring rain/sleet talking about the idea of the solar meadow project. The ‘you must be mad’ comments came in the next day from everyone who heard the broadcast (and there were a number who had). The fact that this scale and type of project being undertaken this far North coupled with the amount of sunlight, or lack of it, this far North was the issue for many people.
What would you say the most damaging myth surrounding solar power is, and how can we best work to bust it?
One major myth for solar energy generation is the loss of land for other uses such as growing food. In between the rows of solar panels we will be growing organic vegetables for college use.
In relation to the book you co-wrote with Ilona Pillai, Environmental Management Systems, what practical advice could you give to businesses that wish to follow in the college’s footsteps by implementing their own Environmental Management System?
The best bit of advice is that implementing a formal or informal EMS provides a business with new opportunities. Whether by creating new collaborative partnerships, access to new markets, products and services particularly when looking at new methods), processes or technologies when saving money in waste reduction and energy efficiency. Innovation comes to the fore; new ways of doing things brings new opportunities and rewards; staff members also have a feel good factor about their place of work.
Your book examines the different strategies that companies adopt to establish EMS. What would you say was the wildest strategy you’ve come across?
The strangest one I have come across is one very large computer manufacturing company that introduced a policy to incentivize all staff to recycle cardboard boxes and packaging within the company. Staff received ‘beer vouchers’ per kilogram of cardboard collected in a month. This policy proved to be very successful, after only two months recycling levels were at 100%. However, the policy was quickly abandoned when complaints were received from Tesco, Asda, Morrison’s and Sainsbury’s about computer company staff members taking excessive numbers of cardboard boxes from local stores.
What would you say was the most simple strategy a business could adopt to implement effective EMS?
Write a one page policy statement about how the company will minimise waste and reduce energy usage over one year. Put this statement on every notice board in the company so that all staff has access to it. This is a simple, informal, EMS that can begin tomorrow. The majority of staff and clients will love it. However, not delivering on this policy commitment will have a significant negative impact on future staff morale and client retention. Do not do if you do not mean it, nobody likes ‘greenwash’.
Terms and conditions apply*.
Written in partnership with Chally Group Worldwide, the new editions of Contemporary Selling and Sales Force Management continue to set the standard for the most up-to-date and student-friendly selling textbook available anywhere today.
We are pleased to be able to offer you the chance to claim 20% off these titles by simply entering the discount code GDC71 at the checkout when you purchase online.
* Offer available until 30/06/2013 and applies only to books purchased on the Routledge website. Cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer or discount.
]]>Terms and conditions apply*.
That's right: we're offering a huge 20% off all Critical Evaluations in Business and Management titles
Featuring some of the great management figures of the twentieth century, each multivolume collection is fully indexed with a comprehensive introduction newly written by the editor.
All you have to do is enter the code MW13 at checkout to activate the 20% discount. Browse the titles below or take a look at the series webpage: http://www.routledge.com/u/MW13/
Terms and conditions apply: Offer available until 30/06/2013 and applies only to books purchased on the Routledge website. This discount cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer or discount.
To claim your discount, simply enter PRO20 at the checkout. For more information on each title, please visit the links below.
* The 20% discount offer applies only the books listed and expires 01/05/2013. This offer cannot be used in conjunction with another offer.
]]>FOREWORD BY SIR RICHARD BRANSON
I have, for several decades with my airline and railway enterprises, been deeply involved in the transport business. When I look back over these years, I see incredible changes in society, the way we live our daily lives and how industry and commerce has reacted. The rapid and relentless increase of international trade has been frequently disrupted by disasters, terrorist attacks, bad weather and continuous increases in fuel prices. Despite all these challenges, the transport and logistics industry has managed to not only survive, but has become stronger than ever. Without the flow of goods and passengers around the world, our way of life and the development of poorer countries’ economies wouldn’t exist.
Over the last 28 years, Virgin Atlantic Airways has turned heads around the world. We have delivered our promise to provide high quality and value for money, taking on giants, particularly when they seem to have taken their customers’ loyalty for granted.
Air travel has transformed all of our lives and helps us experience different cultures and make new friends all over the world. However, airlines are not only about passengers. To make them work successfully, you also need to build a growing and award-winning cargo service and at Virgin we’ve done that too.
Air logistics is a phenomenal industry and has become even more important not only to the success of airlines but also to every consumer and business leader around the world. Before aircraft, products moving between countries spent weeks at sea. Today, it takes just hours to move imports and exports from one side of the world to another, putting air logistics at the very heart of world trade.
I am delighted to introduce the Air Logistics Handbook and I hope it will encourage you to explore the many career opportunities this outstanding industry offers. Air cargo needs new well educated executives and entrepreneurs who will be tomorrow’s leaders and innovators. Air cargo needs you.
I wish you every success.
___________
For more information on 'The Air Logistics Handbook' please go to www.routledge.com/u/ALHB
Read more about the topics explored in The Routledge Companion to Digital Consumption in this fascinating interview with the editors.
Overall, what picture do these interesting, yet varied essays, point of digital consumption? Is there an overarching message, and if not, are there particular divergences that are important to note?
In a few short decades digital consumption has colonized more and more of our lives from entertainment to communication to shopping to learning about the world. We have had many technological revolutions before, dating back to the Stone Age. But this one is profound. As consumers of digital technologies, we have already experienced seismic shifts in how we spend our day. Industries have rapidly emerged and others have rapidly declined in the face of these shifts in consumption. This book is a compendium of answers to what this means for consumers, marketers, theory, research, and human well-being.
Which of the essays in this collection would you say was the most radical in terms of its view of digital consumption, and why?
Norah Campbell’s chapter on the posthuman consumer presents a radical view of consumers becoming digital machines and digital machines becoming human. Each of the chapters in the section on researching the digital consumer introduces radically new methods needed to understand digital consumption. And the chapters by Pridmore and Zwick and Singh and Lyon alert us to the social and ethical issues arising from digital surveillance and the radical changes in notions of privacy that such surveillance is creating.
What prompted you to bring this collection together and are there any essays that you particularly agree with or feel are very important in terms of getting a particular message about digital consumption out there?
Digital consumption was the elephant in the room that everyone could see but very few were addressing in terms of what it means for consumer theory and practice. The papers in the introductory section on “What’s Digital?” help set the stage for the volume by tracing many of the changes taking place and raising an agenda of issues. The next five sections help understand a variety of digital consumption phenomenon that together comprise a good view of the emerging field. But the final section on issues for society and culture is the most profound in taking a hard critical look at the consequences, both positive and negative, that have thus far arisen in the area of digital consumption.
Please could you say a few words about the potential dangers that arise from taking digital consumption for granted? How would these play themselves out?
Past technological revolutions like those involving electricity, the telegraph, radio, television, and the automobile have taught us that while they were inevitably accompanied by simultaneous frenzies of technophilia and technophobia, it is once they became normalized that they had their greatest impacts, even though they were less appreciated at the time. The same is true of digital consumption. We have already seen how changes in the consumption of books, music, and film initially caused celebrations of free information and at the same time fierce resistance from those industries wed too strongly to older technologies. But issues of what digital consumption do to our notions of self, trust, friendship, and consumer activism have been less appreciated until recently, even though they likely have a more profound on our well being.
What do you think is the biggest assumption about digital consumption that needs to be addressed?
The initial assumption was that the so-called digital divide would separate ages, genders, and nations, empowering the young, men, and wealthy nations and disempowering the others. This gave way to an almost opposite assumption that digital technologies level the playing field, with digital phones leapfrogging landlines and anyone being able to buy, sell, and compete online. Neither of these assumptions was wholly warranted, but we need to find just which groups are benefitting from digital consumption and what the impediments are for those who are not. We also need to critically examine the assumption that everyone must have high speed internet access in order to be a fully functioning human being able to compete in the global marketplace.
How much does digital consumption reflect itself in society? Do you have any anecdotes that you would like to share which reflect this or sum it up?
We already have numerous concepts that have changed our lexicon, from “Google it” to “lol” to “in the cloud.” There’s an anecdote contained in the initial chapter about how one of us was teaching a class first thing in the morning on the first day of the term and students were straggling in late due to a major snow storm. When they were asked how many had nevertheless been on Facebook already that morning, three-fourths raised their hands. When they were asked how many had been on Facebook before they got out of bed, nearly a third raised their hands. Just don’t expect your hundreds of Facebook friends to all show up at your wedding or funeral.
How fast do you think digital consumption is evolving and to what extent can you see it taking over our lives? In other words, will there always be a place for the cashier?
There is already something of a backlash with banks and other institutions advertising that when you call you can talk to a real human being. So perhaps “taking over our lives” is a bit too extreme. With the advent of digital music, the record has made a comeback. And there is still a reasonable market for books and magazines made of paper. Together with printing out digital copies, our consumption of paper has actually gone up. But these exceptions do not negate the wave of digital consumption sweeping over us. Yes, there will always be a place for the cashier as well as the butcher, the waiter, and the air host or hostess, just as there is still a place for the blacksmith, the sweeper, and the actor or actress. But it is a safe bet that there are ever more human applications that will be replaced or aided by some form of digital encounter. Even robotic partners for life have been proposed by some utopic or dystopic visionaries.
What prompted you to write this book?
Two personal perspectives. With over twenty years of experience in the industry as a public relations practitioner, Margalit identified a significant gap in the way public relations was practiced and perceived in Israel compared to the developed countries she visited as a member of the international PR community. While studying and working in the US she became intrigued by those differences. Israel for example, had no academic program in public relations till 2011 while in the US it was a recognised discipline within many universities. She decided to respond to scholars such as Sriramesh and Vercic who in the late 1990s called for the discipline of public relations to research the profession within the context of specific cultural and political environments rather than follow the assumption that all public relations experiences follow the US model.
As a Scottish republican, David has been questioning national identity almost since birth and has been researching PR since 1997. Only recently, however, did he appreciate the formative role of public relations in personal and national narratives and the impact of national identities on the evolution of PR as a profession. Our joint trips to Israel helped us both to identify the interplay of nation building and PR as a distinctive way to understand both the uniqueness of the Israeli system and its possible relevance to other unique national experiences.
What makes Israel stand out from other countries, in terms of the use of PR to inform/build national identity?
Israel, at 65, is relatively a new state that was established by immigrants from around the world with about 70 different cultural identities and languages. The Zionist movement that established the state made a phenomenal effort to unite them into one society and to create a new Israeli identity. The first public relations practitioners were employed by Zionist institutions. They used PR to enlist the new immigrants to the challenging tasks involved in building a nation and a state. They also provided the enlisting narratives, symbols, and emotional messages that inspired the sacrifice of personal individual goals, and sometimes, lives, for the sake of building a state.
Does the definition of PR change when used in the context of nation building?
Current definitions of public relations emphasise the role of the practitioners as facilitators of dialogue between organisations and their constituents, and as builders of networks of relationships. We argue that in situations of nation building, the pressure to use propaganda-style communication is intense. The whole society, including the media, tends to cooperate and support the agendas set by the national leadership. Typically, there is no tolerance for dissident voices as happens during wars. Enlisted societies rarely offer the democratic environment that allows PR to flourish in line with contemporary definitions.
Do other techniques form national identities in Israel?
There is a special term in Hebrew called Hasbara which, literally, means “explanation.” It is used to describe the effort of government, or other organisations, to influence public opinion within Israel and abroad. A paternalistic approach to persuasive communication, Hasbara is based on the assumption that the receivers of the message are ignorant or lack the background knowledge to understand correctly without guidance. Hasbara, or the lack of it, is often blamed for the poor image of Israel abroad and the international criticism on its behaviour, especially in the context of its conflict with Palestinians. Hasbara is often used to describe public relations campaigns though it is closer to propaganda and does not recognise the need for interactive dialogue.
What is the difference between political propaganda and public relations, or is it that political propaganda is a tool of public relations?
Any type of propaganda, not just political propaganda, is one sided and involves half-truth or lies while ignoring or shutting down the voices of opponents. Public relations aims to be more dialogical and to present activists and other critical voices to the decision makers of their organisations. The profession aspires to ethical communication and to the building of relations of trust with stakeholders, the public, and the media. In reality, however, it can operate akin to many features of propaganda and only pay lip service to the attitudes and demands of internal and external publics.
Why do you think PR has not been examined before in terms of nation building and national identity?
There have been a few scholars who did examine this interaction and, more recently, there’s been increased research in the area. Nonetheless, most of the literature on public relations has been produced since the 1920s in the US. That literature assumed American leadership of the profession and the academic research. With the rise of globalisation, and less US-centric approaches, scholars have studied different professional experiences in different parts of the world. Jacquie L’Etang’s (2004) pioneering book on the history of public relations in Britain was a first of its kind. In a sense our book follows her steps by providing a different story from another political, economic, and socio-cultural environment.
What is the overall message of the book?
That unity should not ride roughshod over democracy and that dissenting voices need to be heard. We see an urgent need to make the future activities of public relations contribute positively and transparently to the growth of “fully functioning societies.” In a climate of nation building and nationalism, PR can be too easily pressed into the service of government propaganda. It needs to build a history of resistances to these pressures. By remembering that it functions best in a democratic environment, it can help to speak truth to power to preserve that environment. Israel’s success in providing narratives that enlist society to unite and to sacrifice for the state offers lessons that unity sometimes comes at the cost of democracy.
If you were pressed to name one lesson to be taken away from this research, what would it be?
We hope our narrative will encourage public relations practitioners and scholars from all over the world to make their histories visible, to learn from both their positive and negative aspects and to share both as widely as possible. Our deeper aspiration is that PR practitioners, activists, and media workers can jointly contribute to more democratic societies.
Who did you write this book for?
We have ongoing discussion with Margalit’s family and friends in Israel and Israelis, Jews and non-Jews outside of the country. While writing the book we were trying to clarify our position to them and work out how our experiences in our nations had shaped us. Our colleagues and friends from all over the world who research and study the role of public relations in society were a significant audience in our mind. We also tried to create a book that would help Israelis understand PR and the Israeli PR industry to acknowledge its professional roots and be inspired by the socially responsible aspirations of contemporary public relations practitioners across the world.
Read more from Ruth Kinzey in an interview about her book here.
What prompted you to write the book?
Many people encouraged me to write another book. However, it wasn’t until Dr. Marcella DeVeaux contacted me to locate copies of Using Public Relations Strategies to Promote Your Nonprofit Organization that I seriously considered undertaking such a project.
Although published several years earlier, Dr. DeVeaux said the basic communication principles, understandable writing style, easy-to-implement tactical approaches, and extensive bibliography continued to make this book a “must have” for those interested in nonprofit communication. Given my passion for teaching and mentoring, these remarks inspired me share my knowledge and research through a second book.
Is there a difference in PR practice between not-for-profit organizations and for-profit organizations? And if so, are there distinctly different channels accessed or approaches adopted by the two types or is the PR more similar than one might think?
Although nonprofits and businesses have different purposes, there are significant similarities.
Whether selling a car, enticing someone to dine at your restaurant, asking an individual to use your accounting service, making a donation request to a nonprofit, or requesting a person volunteer time as a committee chair, the reputational components leveraged as well as the strategic communication planning and measurement processes are essential.
Whether for-profit or nonprofit, the organization’s image must be portrayed consistently and steps taken to proactively enhance as well as protect this reputation. Strategic communication planning efforts must be holistic in nature to ensure consistent organizational image. This helps minimize the risk of an inconsistent reputation as well as identifies weaknesses and possible reputational detractors. Also, relationships must be built with critical stakeholders through honest and open communication. And, collaborative opportunities with key audiences must be identified and executed. Without these, a business or a nonprofit may limit itself through “tunnel vision,” causing major goals to be missed and a lesser degree of success achieved.
What would you say the most difficult barrier facing the PR for nonprofit organizations was? Why? And, how might it be overcome?
A major PR challenge for nonprofit organizations is to think in reputation management terms. Nonprofits automatically receive a significant amount of goodwill because they are thought of as being dedicated to good causes, working toward the common welfare of all, and committed to making the world a better place in which to live.
A business, on the other hand, must work hard to earn trust and to be awarded such a positive and altruistic reputation.
Consequently, nonprofits may overlook the important role a positive and well defined reputation plays in generating donations; recruiting and retaining volunteers at all levels; and protecting credibility and trust during a crisis.
Since it is not a question of if but when a crisis strikes and since the nonprofit environment has become extremely competitive, not-for-profit entities cannot take their reputation for granted. They must be aware of how they are perceived, proactively strategize how they can enhance and capitalize on their reputations, and vigorously protect their images when crises or sensitive situations arise.
How would you describe the main differences between your first publication with us, Using Public Relations to Promote Your Nonprofit Organization, and Promoting Nonprofit Organizations?
Promoting Nonprofit Organizations focuses intently on the reputation management approach to nonprofit branding and public relations. Collaboration is another key theme in this book as communication with important publics and relationship building with critical stakeholders are a necessity for strategic and proactive reputation management efforts.
Although each chapter takes a deep dive into a particular communication channel or tactic, which is similar in writing style to my first publication, Promoting Nonprofit Organizations approaches subjects from an overarching, strategic vantage point and always links to some component of reputation management.
If you were pressed, what would you say was the number one lesson to take away from reading this book?
Proactive enhancement and protection of an organization’s reputation is critical, if a nonprofit intends to:
*maximize fundraising potential;
*leverage relationships with key stakeholders;
*collaborate to its benefit with business and government; and
*recruit and retain engaged volunteers.
To achieve such results, strategic reputation management must be foundational in the strategic planning and tactical communication implementation process.
If you could go back in time and recommend a chapter or segment to your earlier self, which chapter would it be and why?
I’d recommend the strategic planning chapter.
In the course of a busy day, one is pulled in numerous ways. These distractions can tempt one to short change the strategic planning process. When this occurs, adequate time is not spent on a comprehensive and strategic review of the organization. Instead, it is essential to:
*take a holistic view to see how all aspects interrelate to the organization’s reputation,
*analyze the critical elements in this equation,
*dedicate time and resources to proactively shape and achieve this desired image, and
*measure to determine the degree of effectiveness and success.
Care also must be taken to determine how the nonprofit’s brand can be protected by avoiding crises and mitigating risks.
Do you have any anecdotes you would like to share in relation to the book, perhaps from the researching process or your communication experience in the corporate and consulting arenas?
It was particularly rewarding to see the comments of my interviewees fully mirror my research, personal experience, and conclusions. Plus, their written remarks are extremely effective in illustrating key points within the book through the “real life” examples they provided and the insights they shared.
Visit youtube today & watch Paul Kearns, author of ‘Professional HR’, introduce his transformative book, which explores this question.
Watch Paul Kearns on youtube introducing his forthcoming book which aims to transform HR methods by setting professional standards for HR equivalent to those demanded of doctors. It seeks to put the morality of professionalism back into corporate life.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EtqbRUAuMk
For more information on this ground breaking title go to http://www.routledge.com/u/PHR.
To request review copies, arrange interviews and/or collaboration on any features with the author, please contact Jenny Ellis at Jennifer.Ellis@tandf.co.uk
What are the main challenges to doing business in China?
There are many. First, the legal system though improving somewhat, is weak. It is difficult to have contracts and laws enforced in many parts of China. Second, the government still maintains control of about 35% of the economy. And this 35% is the core of the economy. Most importantly they control the banking system, so they decide who gets capital. That is why it can be said they do not have capitalism in China. Third, the government is the main player in the business system. If you do business in China, you do business with the government. They are involved in myriad ways. Fourth, the government has created rules that benefit their own state-owned companies (SOE) at the expense of others. Fourth, intellectual property rights (IPR) are not safe in China. This is especially bad for foreign businesses with advanced technology. Fifth, there is a culture of relationships in China, where who you know is more important than laws and rules. This again involves the government, but it involves everyone. Families rule. Helping you family is most important over other relationships and commitments. Professional cultures is just beginning. Sixth, there is wide-spread government corruption. The people who do best in society are government officials. Much of this is through bribery, kickbacks, etc. Corruption is systemic. The government is fighting it sort of but the problem is so big it will take a generation or two if they really put their back into it, which is far from clear.
What would you say was the most damaging cultural assumption that American and Chinese executives bring to the table when doing business with each other?
They do not trust each other. The Chinese remember the “century of shame” when Western countries invaded China. Stealing from foreigners is almost sport. The Chinese have a sense of inferiority from being so far behind the West. Though that is changing as their tremendous success continues. The two cultures cannot understand each other. “Yes” for the Chinese means “I’ll think about it”, while Westerners think yes means agreement. They cannot read each other’s body language or facial expressions. Chinese are indirect, American are direct. This easily leads to misunderstanding. The Chinese do not think long-term. They do not trust their own government. They want to make money and get out, literally out of the country. Americans have long-range plans.
Could you briefly summarize the intellectual property rights in China and how this relates to collaboration with American businesses?
The Chinese did not have a law for private property until 1984. Laws since then are not always enforced even when they exist. The Chinese do not have a history of IPR. They for thousands of years had a traditional society, which meant imitating role models was the norm. In other words, copying others was the norm. Confucius or one of his disciples said, “To steal a book is an elegant offense”. They really do not have a deep sense of IP. Also they have a more communal society than the West, so they naturally favor the importance of the community as a source of innovation, which puts them at odds with the West. Even when the courts find Chinese companies guilty of IP violations, the penalties are so small they are not a deterrent.
What prompted you to write this book?
My fascination with Chinese culture, the great changes in Chinese society, and the contrasts with the West. I wanted to understand what kind of social-political-economic system was developing in China and what role will it play in the world.
Are there any anecdotes from the researching and writing process that you would like to share with us?
On the first day in Shanghai, my family got lost and wandered into a restaurant. We must have looked like we were from outer space. The whole staff of the place including the cooks came out to watch us eat. They were amazed that we could use chopsticks. I asked for soy sauce for the rice in every way imaginable. They had no idea what I wanted.
I saw a picture in a book store of a Mandarin from the 19th century. He had a 17 inch fingernail on one finger. A sign of his exalted status, he did no physical labor. This system was in place for 2000 years up to the beginning of the 20th century. It still casts a shadow over government-society relations.
I could go on forever.
Who would you recommend read this book?
Social scientists interested in China. Business professors interested in China. Executives who do business with China or plan to. This latter audience is important I think. Once I get my copies I will be giving them to executives and will have much more feedback from them in a few months. Basically I am an anthropologist with a strong interest in ethics, especially how culture and ethics are related. My book focuses on how American and Chinese business cultures interact. It is a qualitative (interpretive) book. Much of it can be understood and appreciated by a general educated public. I think government officials who work with China will appreciate the book. A big part of the book deals with government and business-government relations. I have heard from a business professor in Hong Kong and one in Singapore. They both expressed very strong interest in the book. I think the book will draw strong interest in places like that, e.g. Taiwan and Japan too.
If you could encourage readers to take away one thing from this book, what would it be?
The Chinese have a great and often misunderstood culture. There is much to learn from it.
How can this book be used to inform business practice in a practical sense?
It is very practical to understand a little about Chinese culture and institutions, to understand the person and context you are dealing with. This would significantly lower miscommunications and inappropriate expectations.
Trouble in the Middle is a study of ethical and cultural issues in American-Chinese business relations. Based on interviews of American business executives in the United States, American and Chinese business executives in China, and visits to American and Chinese operations in China, the research focuses on challenges to doing business in China. The Chinese economic reforms are analyzed in detail to determine the type of business system that is emerging. Specific attention is given to the different ethical and cultural assumptions that American and Chinese executives bring to doing business with each other. A concept of the cultural middle is developed to help managers do business in foreign cultures. Several chapters focus on the role of corruption in the China market, both business-government corruption and business to business corruption. Two chapters deal with intellectual property rights issues and the thorny process of addressing them in China. Running through the entire book are detailed discussions of the role of the Chinese middleman in American-Chinese business relations, especially in regard to facilitating bribe payments. The middleman is seen as a key to understanding Chinese culture. The research is related to broader issues concerning China’s historical struggle to modernize its economy and globalization.
]]>Since its birth in 1993, the EU has become a heterogeneous collection of states diverse in terms of history and culture, economic development, fiscal regimes, and welfare and employment institutions, yet economically bound to each other in ways never before seen on the continent outside of conquest. From some fronts it started soon to be expected that Europe would have entailed to a European system of Industrial relations as the “social” response to the process of European economic integration and monetary union. This book shows how the process of European industrial relations as the result of EU has been accompanied by major challenges along its course. It shows how much of these challenges stem from the dynamics of the simultaneous widening and deepening of the European Union, as well as social changes and technological advance. The national institutions of employment relations, specifically those concerning collective bargaining, and their social actors, in particular those representing the interests of employers and employees as well as national and local governments have had to adapt accordingly to the changing European economic environment.
Following key current changes in employment relations thought from mid-1980s to the present day, the book examines the profound causes of these transformations. From the internationalization and intensification of competition, which unleashed intense pressures on nationally-based employment systems as firms sought looser multi-employer arrangements to facilitate restructuring and flexibility to determine pay, working time and employment conditions; it deeply investigates the continued shift of employment from (large-scale) manufacturing to services which meant that the workforce became increasingly diverse and dispersed. The gender and occupational re-composition of the labor force, and the accompanying fragmentation of employment across smaller workplaces and ‘atypical’ forms, raised serious problems for traditional models of recruitment and organization. The information and communication technology (ICT) revolution increased the pace of change within organizations, encouraging new forms of flexible work organization that challenged established norms including for the ‘core’ blue-collar workforce. In the political arena, a deregulation agenda developed informed by neoliberal market ideologies. Within organizations, labor management was increasingly informed by the philosophies and practices of ‘human resource management’ (HRM). This emphasized the importance of employee flexibility and performance and showed less concern for traditional, collective forms of labor regulation. Other challenges relate to increased labor mobility, especially from the ‘new member states’ to the larger economies.
The Transformations of Employment Relations tells a fascinating story about how employment relationships have changed, shifted, evolved and developed down through the centuries in the European Union. The thematic comparative approach of this book makes it unique. Students taking classes in industrial and employment relations, sociology, political science, labor history, human resource management and international business will find this text to be the perfect accompaniment to their studies and will be a captivating read for anyone else.
Bruce Berglund, host of New Books in Sports, interviewed Dennis Deninger, author of Sports on Television: The How and Why Behind What You See, last week.
The interview will also be available on iTunes soon but we've got it first! Why not take a listen to what he has to say now?
]]>