bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Oxygen vacancy ordering in epitaxial layers of yttrium oxide on Si (001)
Authors: Travlos A. , Boukos N. , Apostolopoulos G. , Dimoulas A.
Published: June 2003

The origin of the superstructure observed in epitaxial yttrium oxide (Y2O3) layers on Si (001) is determined by electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS). The oxygen K edge is measured both in the superstructure and a defect-free region of the Y2O3 layers and they are compared to EELS spectra obtained from bulk stoichiometric and reduced Y2O3. It is shown that as a result of the epitaxial growth, oxygen vacancies order into a superstructure creating nonstoichiometric regions in an otherwise stoichiometric Y2O3 layer. Furthermore, it is shown that oxygen deficiency introduces a change of the density of states of the lower conduction band of Y2O3.
Evidence for trans-polyacetylene in nanocrystalline diamond films from H–D isotropic substitution experiments
Authors: Pfeiffer R. , Kuzmany H. , Salk N. , Günther B.
Published: June 2003

Raman spectra of nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) films show a peak around 1140 cm−1 that is usually considered to be a fingerprint of a NCD phase in the sample. From recent studies, it was suggested that this line is due to trans-polyacetylene in the films. We present Raman spectra of deuterated NCD films produced from a D2/CD4/Ar plasma. In these spectra, the 1140 cm−1 mode has disappeared and a peak at 860 cm−1 has emerged. The downshift of the peak at 1140 cm−1 is taken as a proof for its origin from trans-polyacetylene.
Resonance acoustic field position sensor
Authors: Dong Shuxiang , Bai Feiming , Li Jie-Fang , Viehland Dwight
Published: June 2003

An acoustic position sensor, based on a piezoelectric-sound-resonance cavity (PSRC), is reported in which a resonance acoustic field is used as the sensing mechanism. It has been discovered that an inserted object or an object motion in the sound radiation field results in changes in the resonance state of the PSRC. Experiments have demonstrated a high position resolution in the axial direction, and also good sensitivity in the transverse.
Current–voltage characteristics of Pb and Sn granular superconducting nanowires
Authors: Michotte Sébastien , Mátéfi-Tempfli Stefan , Piraux Luc
Published: June 2003

Arrays of granular superconducting Pb and Sn nanowires (40–55 nm in diameter and 22 or 50 μm long) have been prepared by electrodeposition in nanoporous membranes. A simple technique has been developed to perform electrical transport measurement on a single nanowire. By sweeping the dc current inside the nanowire, we observed the formation of phase-slip-centers far below the critical temperature. In contrast, in voltage-driven experiments, an interesting S-shaped behavior has been observed in the nucleation region of these phase-slip-centers.
Midinfrared continuous-wave photoluminescence of lead–salt structures up to temperatures of 190 °C
Authors: Böberl M. , Heiss W. , Schwarzl T. , Wiesauer K. , Springholz G.
Published: June 2003

Continuous-wave photoluminescence in the midinfrared for PbSe/PbEuSe and PbTe/PbEuTe multiquantum well structures as well as for PbSe and PbTe bulklike structures, excited by a semiconductor laser diode, is investigated. All samples are grown by molecular-beam epitaxy on BaF2(111) substrates under the same growth conditions. Both for the Te-based systems and for the Se-based systems, it turns out that bulklike structures show photoluminescence up to higher temperatures than multiquantum well structures. In particular, emission spectra from PbTe/PbEuTe multiquantum wells are obtained up to temperatures of 200 K and from PbSe/PbEuSe multiquantum well structures up to 60 °C whereas for bulklike PbSe photoluminescence at temperatures as high as 190 °C is demonstrated.
Prediction and measurement of mild steel corrosion inhibition by alkyl pyridinium chloride and alkyl trimethyl ammonium bromide surfactants in acidic chloride media
Authors: Wang WanLin , Free Michael L.
Published: June 2003

Surfactants are important corrosion inhibitors that are used in different applications. This paper utilizes the recently developed methodology and formulae to predict mild steel corrosion inhibition by alkyl pyridinium chloride and alkyl trimethyl ammonium bromide compounds. By utilizing different surfactants of varying chain lengths in different acidic media and determining the associated corrosion inhibition, the relationship between surfactant concentration, surfactant hydrocarbon chain length, surfactant critical micelle concentration, and corrosion inhibition can be evaluated. The results from this study can be used to improve relevant industrial uses of surfactants for corrosion inhibition.
The cyclic hydroxylamines: a new class of corrosion inhibitors of carbon steel in acidic medium
Authors: Tariq Saeed M. , Asrof Ali Sk. , Rahman S.U.
Published: June 2003

Several cyclic hydroxylamines containing hydrophobic substituents were prepared. All these hydroxylamines were tested for corrosion inhibition of carbon steel in 1M HCl at 60°C by gravimetric and electrochemical methods. All compounds showed excellent corrosion inhibition efficiency (IE per cent) in acidic solutions containing 400 ppm of the inhibitors; Inhibitor Efficiencies in the range 66‐98 per cent were measured by the gravimetric method. Comparable results were obtained by the electrochemical method using Tafel plots for the IE of some of the selected synthesised compounds.
The effects of petroleum refinery wastewater on the rate of corrosion of steel equipment
Authors: Nosier S.A.
Published: June 2003

The present study addresses the mutual relationship between pollution and corrosion in the context of the petroleum refining industry. The rate of galvanic corrosion of steel coupled with copper when immersed in oil refinery wastewater was studied by the weight‐loss technique. The variables studied were: MgCl2 concentration, the ratio between the cathode area and the anode area of the galvanic couple, and operating temperature. It was found that the rate of galvanic corrosion of steel coupled with copper increased with increasing MgCl2 up to a certain concentration and then remained almost constant with further increase in concentration. Increasing the cathode/anode area ratio also increased the rate of corrosion. The rate of corrosion increased with temperature at an activation energy of 8.4 kcal/mol, which denotes that galvanic corrosion of steel in MgCl2 solution is a diffusion‐controlled reaction.
The effect of triazoles and surfactants on the corrosion inhibition of carbon steel in acid solution
Authors: Tamilselvi S. , Rajeswari S.
Published: June 2003

The inhibitive action of triazoles and surfactants on the corrosion of carbon steel has been studied using the weight loss method and electrochemical studies. Results obtained show that these organic compounds are very good inhibitors. Potentiodynamic polarisation studies clearly reveal the type of inhibitor. The corrosion parameters such as corrosion current (icorr), corrosion potential (Ecorr), inhibition efficiency (IE), corrosion rate, and activation energy (Ea) were calculated at different temperatures ranging from 303 to 333 K. The adsorption of triazole compounds on carbon steel surface obeyed Langmuir's adsorption isotherm.
Factors influencing foreign direct investment and international joint ventures
Authors: Gilmore Audrey , O'Donnell Aodheen , Carson David , Cummins Darryl
Published: June 2003

Inward foreign direct investment (FDI) is regarded as an important means of employment and knowledge creation in many economies. This study investigates the motivations and satisfaction levels associated with FDI in two economies that are increasingly recognising the benefits of inward investment: Northern Ireland and Bahrain. Although different in may respects, these two regions share similar economic and political characteristics and this study compares the perceptions of the managing directors of foreign companies who have chosen to invest in either of the two regions. It reports that many expected findings were borne out by the study but also highlights pertinent findings that were not anticipated and accordingly that may be of interest to government bodies charged with the responsibility of attracting inward investment.
Negotiation approaches: direct and indirect effect of national culture
Authors: Lin Xiaohua , Miller Stephen J.
Published: June 2003

The focus of the study is on direct and indirect effects of national culture on negotiation behavior in international business. It argues that negotiation approach is conditioned primarily by relational contextual variables, e.g. relationship commitment and relative power, that national culture exerts direct influence on the preferences for negotiation approaches, and that national culture also has indirect influence in the choice of negotiation approaches while interacting with relational contexts. The hypotheses are tested among samples of American and Chinese joint venture managers in China. The study findings, especially those on the interaction between national culture and relational contextual variables, afford important theoretical and managerial implications.
The Uncertain Value of School Knowledge: Biology at Westridge High
Authors: Page Reba N.
Published: June 2003

This article describes and analyzes the surprisingly uncertain value of school science in an academically prestigious high school at a time when reform in science education is again a national priority. In a cultural analysis focused on school lessons, it traces how school participants produce a veritable absence of science in science classes and how the production is sensible, or understandable, given their particular institutional and social circumstances. What emerges, too, is the extraordinary reach, or complexity, of ordinary school lessons. However unevenly or intricately, lessons move from teacher plans to student responses, beyond events in classrooms to the culture of a school, across contemporary hybrids of divergent curricular rationales to long-past historical debates, while traveling between subject matter knowledge and status politics. Seeing their reach allows us to understand the long-standing muddlement of knowledge in U.S. schools, as well as what we can do about it.
Storm over the Schoolhouse: Exploring Popular Influences upon the American Curriculum, 1890–1941
Authors: Zimmerman Jonathan
Published: June 2003

Recent histories of the American curriculum have shown how citizen groups influenced local course offerings and state requirements during the early twentieth century. Using case studies of three subject areas—history, military training, and foreign languages— this article demonstrates that lay activists also affected the content and even the enrollment of these courses. The article illustrates the enormous range of citizens who entered curricular disputes, the diversity of strategies they employed, and the disparate results of their efforts. It also suggests a new explanation for the decline of the traditional “3 R's” and the rise of a more “practical,” differentiated curriculum between the turn of the century and World War Two. Hardly the pawns of school officials, laypeople had their own “practical” reasons for embracing this trend: it opened the door to whatever new agendas they hoped to inject. Across the ideological spectrum, then, citizen groups joined hands to condemn old-fashioned, academic curricula. Not until the late 1940s would conservative activists rally around the 3 R's, sparking a new school war that still rages today.
The Arm of the School that Extends into the Homes: The Visiting Teacher Movement, 1906 to 1940
Authors: Knupfer Anne Meis
Published: June 2003

This article traces the development of the visiting teacher movement, from 1906 to 1940, with particular attention paid to the disjuncture between professional discourse and actual practices. Three main points are argued. First, early visiting teacher work drew from multiple sources, including social settlements, juvenile courts, private philanthropies, and women's clubs. The discussion of the origins of visiting teachers in multiple urban settings attested to the diversity of their work in communities and in schools. Second, most visiting teachers’ work remained essentially unchanged, despite their later participation in child guidance clinics. Even though visiting teachers worked in conjunction with psychiatrists and psychologists, their practices still relied upon traditional approaches used in the first part of the century. Third, the medical and psychiatric discourses surrounding visiting teacher work in the 1920s and 1930s assumed a powerful life of its own. In a most curious manner, these languages formed a critique of teachers’ social relations with students and of their classroom practices generally. Subsequently, many teacher education programs initiated mental hygiene and psychology courses for their student teachers. The article concludes with lessons educators and policy makers might take from the visiting teacher movement, especially those related to the current school-linked social services model.
A Movement against and beyond Boundaries:1 “Politically Relevant Teaching” among African American Teachers
Authors: Beauboeuf–Lafontant Tamara
Published: June 2003

The purpose of this article is to examine culturally relevant teaching as a political pedagogy and a contemporary manifestation of what was considered “good” teaching in many African American communities served by black segregated schools. Through examining several ethnographies and autobiographical accounts of segregated schools that were valued by black students and families, I assert that the “good” of these institutions hinged not simply on the cultural similarities between teachers and students, but more importantly on the “political clarity” of the teachers. That is, these educators recognized the existence of oppression in their students’ lives and sought to use their personal, professional, and social power to encourage children to understand and undermine their subordination. I also contend that because they use their knowledge of society's inequities and their influence to empower their marginalized students, the pedagogy of contemporary culturally relevant teachers might be more accurately called “politically relevant teaching.” I conclude the article by discussing how recognizing the political and historical dimensions of culturally relevant teaching may broaden its application, as issues of racism and social injustice are relevant to all Americans and not only to people of color.
Theorizing Race in the Context of Learning to Teach
Authors: Duesterberg Luann M.
Published: June 2003

Given the context of schools and society, in which the meanings of race so deeply impact social arrangements and social interactions, it is imperative for preservice teachers and teacher educators to engage in efforts to theorize race and understand how constructions of race affect our actions and decisions. Requiring that student teachers be committed to teaching every child in their classrooms demands that preservice teachers think through how they understand themselves and others through race in a society in which race is both the vehicle through which oppression is accomplished and the vehicle through which groups rally to combat that oppression. Thinking through race is complicated by the various theoretical conceptions of race that have grounded race relations in this country for the last 300 years. Arguing that race is neither purely ideological nor purely essential but grounded in sociohistorical ideologies and performances, this author uses this conceptualization of race both to interpret the practices of student teachers and to ground her own practice as a teacher educator.
Access to Constructivist and Didactic Teaching: Who Gets It? Where is it Practiced?
Authors: Smerdon Becky A. , Burkam David T. , Lee Valerie E.
Published: June 2003

Calls for the reform of instruction in U.S. classrooms, particularly in secondary schools, are growing and often strident. Many reformers advocate a move away from traditional, teacher-centered, (didactic) direct instruction, where students are passive receptors of knowledge, toward more student-centered understanding-based (constructivist) teaching that focuses on exploration and experimentation. In this study we investigate the issue of access to these two types of instruction in U.S. high school science classrooms. We use a nationally representative sample of 3,660 students and their science teachers drawn from the first two waves of the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS:88). Although didactic instruction is more common among higher–socioeconomic status and female students, constructivist instruction is practiced more often among students of lower ability. Constructivist teaching is also more common in both higher-level science courses (i.e., chemistry) and lower-level courses (i.e., basic biology and physical science). The students of average social and academic status appear to be the forgotten majority with respect to constructivist instruction. We offer explanations for the findings and discuss implications for educational policy and social equity in high school science.
Progressive Education and Feminist Pedagogies: Issues in Gender, Power, and Authority
Authors: Maher Frances A.
Published: June 2003

This essay explores the relationship between feminist pedagogical theory and the student-centered legacy of progressive education around the specific issues of classroom gender relations and the construction of the female teacher's authority. Are feminist pedagogies basically just “good teaching”? And if so, why is a specifically feminist pedagogy necessary? The essay is in four parts. It first discusses contemporary applications of progressive educational theory to issues of gender, as well as to other forms of inequality. Then, beginning with a discussion of the legacy of Dewey himself in relation to his writings on women, it focuses on an issue that holds specific problems for women teachers, namely that of the teacher's authority in the classroom. Finally, through a few classroom examples, it suggests how thinking about gender and other aspects of difference as forms of unequal power relations can help reframe the grounds for the teacher's authority, giving her (or him) grounds for active intervention in the power dynamics of the classroom in the name of a reformulation of democratic teaching.
Dropping Out of Advanced Mathematics: The Effects of Parental Involvement
Authors: Ma Xin
Published: June 2003

Based on a national sample from the Longitudinal Study of American Youth (LSAY), this study examined the effects of individual characteristics and different types of parental involvement on participation in advanced mathematics from grades 8 to 12. Results of hierarchical survival analysis show that an average student is most likely to drop out in grade 12, where there is also a large gender gap in participation in favor of males. Prior achievement is most influential in the early grades of high school, whereas prior attitude is most influential in the later grades. Schools vary significantly in participation rates at each grade level, but the variation is relatively small at both the beginning and the end of high school. There is a positive contextual effect associated with school mean socioeconomic status which is substantial in grade 9, smaller in grades 10 and 11, and negligible in grade 12. As to parental involvement, volunteer work for school is the most important school-level variable in the early grades (8 to 10). The effect is strong in each grade, and remains similar in magnitude across grades. Home discussion is critical in the middle grades (10 and 11). The effect is strong, and remains almost constant in the two grades. Home-school communication has a temporary, though strong, effect in grade 9. The effect of home expectation is nonsignificant across all grades.
Making Peace: A Narrative Study of a Bilingual Liaison, a School and a Community
Authors: Hones Donald F.
Published: June 2003

Schools today must address multiple levels of conflict in the lives of children and communities. This study explores the role of a bilingual liaison in helping to resolve conflicts and build bridges of understanding between schools and diverse communities. Using narrative inquiry to represent and interpret the narratives of Shou Cha, a Hmong community liaison, and his colleagues at the Center for Language, Culture and Communication Arts (CLCCA), special attention is given to the representation of subjects’ voices and narrative forms that engage readers aesthetically as well as critically. This study addresses the multiple conflicts affecting the lives of minority language students, their families, and schools, as well as the need to move from a schooling paradigm of discipline and punish (Foucault, 1979) to one of making peace. He examines the cultural roles played by Shou Cha as cultural healer (from Spindler & Spindler, 1990) and border crosser (Giroux, 1997), and suggests implications for researchers and educators.
Adolescent Girls’ Body-Narratives: Learning to Desire and Create a “Fashionable” Image
Authors: Oliver Kimberly L.
Published: June 2003

This critical narrative inquiry took place in an inner city middle school in the southeast part of the country. The purpose of the study was to explore how four adolescent girls constructed the meanings of their bodies. Of interest were the stories girls told about their bodies and how their stories, cultural storylines, and images of women could empower and disempower girls in the process of becoming healthy women. The girls and I met 50 min twice a week for 15 weeks during their health and physical education class. Data collection techniques included 25 audiotaped and transcribed group discussions, journal writing, freewriting, written stories, and more. These girls were learning, through fashion, to desire and create a normalized image of the perfect woman. Fashion was a heuristic as they constructed the meanings of their bodies.
Governing America's Schools: The Shifting Playing Field
Authors: Murphy Joseph
Published: June 2003

This essay argues that the landscape of educational control is being reshaped in the post-industrial era. It reviews the current governance problems in education and details the range of possible governance models for post-industrial schooling. The analysis begins by describing the problems that governance must address and identifying the professional-statist domination of school governance and the reliance on bureaucratic mechanisms to exercise control as the two most serious contemporary governance problems. The discussion then moves to a description of the various possiblilities for school governance in the future. Five types of control processes are considered: state control, citizen control, professional control, community control, and market control. The paper concludes by outlining the design principles that form the basis for rethinking school governance in a post-industrial world: localism, direct democracy, lay control, choice, and democratic professionalism.
Asian American Resistance to Selecting Teaching as a Career: The Power of Community and Tradition
Authors: Gordon June A.
Published: June 2003

In the face of noticeably low interest in K-12 teaching among young Asian American students, interviews first were conducted with undergraduate Asian American students in teacher education programs and then those same students conducted interviews themselves with a variety of Asian Americans in several California communities. Findings suggest the pivotal influence of the traditional Chinese role of teachers in undermining the confidence and interest needed for the choice of a K–12 teaching career by Asian Americans. The main sources of resistance to teaching as a career were identified as: intense pressure from parents to strive for positions perceived as having higher status, greater financial rewards, and stability; a sense of personal inadequacy due to standards set by Chinese culture for what it means to be a teacher; and fear of working outside a comfort zone defined by language, diversity, respect, responsibility for other people's children, and separation of private from public selves. The majority of informants saw race-matched teaching as not valuable or necessary. Differences in American and Chinese traditions of K-12 education are discussed.
Community Colleges and Contract Training: Content, Origins, and Impact
Authors: Dougherty Kevin J. , Bakia Marianne F.
Published: June 2003

Over the last three decades, most community colleges have broadened their economic development role to include contracting with employers to train current or prospective employees in job and academic skills. This article describes the main contours of the community college's involvement in contract training, explains how this involvement arose, and analyzes its impact on the community college. This analysis is based both on national data on the general prevalence and form of contract training and on case studies of the forms it takes in twenty community colleges in five states servicing five quite different industries. Contract training is sometimes quite elaborate, as in the case of the entry-level training of skilled workers in auto manufacturing, auto repair, and construction. Here the training often involves multiyear apprenticeships, combining both classroom and on-the-job training, with labor unions exercising a major role. But contract training often is much briefer and dominated by the wishes of companies. The origins of contract training lie in a combination both of business pressure and of initiative by community colleges and government bodies pursuing interests and values of their own. Contract training has broadly affected community colleges in such areas as enrollments, revenues, external relations, governance, internal relations, curriculum and pedagogy, and institutional mission. It has brought more students, revenues, and political clout, but also greater business involvement in community college governance and possibly a major redefinition of institutional mission away from education (especially transfer education) toward training.
Nationalism and Its Explanations
Authors: Dekker Henk , Malová Darina , Hoogendoorn Sander
Published: June 2003

This paper presents new terms for analyzing individuals’ national attitudes and their conceptualization and operationalization, a universal psychological structure in which these concepts interconnect, and a nationalism explanatory model. Three empirical studies using anonymous self‐administered surveys served to test and improve national attitude assessment and its developmental theory. These empirical studies were conducted in a well‐established state (the Netherlands), a recently established state (Slovakia), and a region in which a considerable proportion of citizens are striving to develop a new independent state (the Basque Autonomous Community of Spain).
Ideological Orientation and Political Transition in Hong Kong: Confidence in the Future
Authors: Ho David Y. F. , Chau Albert W. L. , Chiu Chi‐yue , Peng S. Q.
Published: June 2003

In the two‐component model of ideological orientation, a person's ideological position is jointly influenced by attitudinal and affective components. The present study adopted this conceptual model to predict confidence in the future of Hong Kong. Questionnaire responses were collected from 395 adults (56.8% men and 43.2% women) in Hong Kong in April 1995, some 2 years before its transfer from British to Chinese control. The results show that the level of confidence in Hong Kong was related to both attitudinal and affective identification with Hong Kong and China. These findings suggest that the transfer of government may have brought to the surface a collision of the divergent political cultures of Hong Kong and mainland China, resulting in two antagonistic political orientations that predicted confidence in the future of Hong Kong.
Audit Qualification, Firm Litigation, and Financial Information: an Empirical Analysis in Greece
Authors: Spathis Charalambos T.
Published: June 2003

In this study, we test the extent to which combinations of financial and non‐financial information can be used to enhance the ability to discriminate between the choices of a qualified or unqualified (clean) audit report. We examined the financial statements, the opinions of the auditors, and the notes to financial statements for companies that received a qualified audit report and for those that received an unqualified audit report. The data are taken from a sample of 100 Greek companies. Logistic and OLS regression models were estimated to assess the effect of firm litigation and financial information on audit qualification opinion. The qualification decision is associated by financial information such as financial distress and by non‐financial information such as firm litigation. The model developed is accurate in classifying the total sample correctly with rate 78%. This study has implications for internal and external auditors and company decision makers.
Cultural Diversity in People's Understanding and Uses of Time
Authors: Brislin Richard W. , Kim Eugene S.
Published: June 2003

La mondialisation et les projets commerciaux internationaux mettent fréquemment en relation des personnes relevant de cultures différentes. Hall soutient que la gestion du temps est un ‘langage silencieux’ qui affecte les conduites quiotidiennes. Les auteurs ont retenu dix concepts résumant l’impact de la culture sur les contact interculturels qui sont l’un des aspects des négociations dans les affaires internationales: 1. Le temps de l’horloge et celui de l’événement: respecte‐t‐on des programmes préétablis ou laisse‐t‐on l’événement suivre son cours naturel avant de passer à un autre événement? 2. La ponctualité: quel est le degré de sensibilité au non respect des horaires convenus? 3. La relation entre la tâche et le temps social pendant la journée de travail; 4. Se consacre‐t‐on à une seule activitéà la fois ou à plusieurs en même temps? 5. Efficience vs efficacité; 6. Un rythme de vie lent ou accélér; 7. Comment réagit‐on aux longues périodes de silence? 8. Est‐on plutôt tourné vers le passé, le présent ou l’avenir? 9. La dimension symbolique due temps; 10. L’importance respective du temps consacré au travail et aus loisirs. En s’appuyant sur ces dix concepts, les auteurs suggèrent quelques idées aux hommes d’affaires qui voyagent beaucoup dans des environnements culturels différents du leur et qui accepteur des séjours de longue durée dans l’autres pays.

The global economy and international business ventures have brought many occasions for the development of interpersonal relationships among people who were socialised into different cultures. People's use of time, according to Hall, is a “silent language” that affects their everyday behaviors. The authors identify ten concepts that summarise how culture affects intercultural interactions that are part of international business dealings: 1. Clock and event time: Do people follow set schedules or let the event take its natural course before moving to another event? 2. Punctuality: How sensitive are people to deviations from appointed times? 3. The relation between task and social time during the workday; 4. Whether people do one activity at a time or do many at once; 5. Efficiency vs. effectiveness; 6. Fast and slow paces of life; 7. How people deal with long periods of silence; 8. People's time orientation: past, present and the future; 9. The symbolic meaning of time; 10. Cultural differences in importance of work and leisure time. The authors also provide insights based on these ten concepts for business people who travel extensively to other cultures and who accept long‐term assignments in other countries.
The Digital Divide and Managing Workforce Diversity: A Commentary
Authors: Ford, Jr David L. , Whaley George L.
Published: June 2003

Aux Etats‐Unis, les minorités sont nettement en‐dessous de la moyenne nationale dans l’occupation des emplois relevant des technologies de l’information et autres industries high‐tech. D’un point de vue plus global, l’embauche de gens de couleur provenant d’Afrique, du Pakistan, d’Inde ou du Bengladesh pose également problème au Royaume Uni et dans les autres pays de l’union européenne. En clair, il faut inverser ces patriques. Les auteurs examinent ces faits et d’autres données de partage numérique dans une perspective de diversitéélargie de la main‐d’œuvre et proposent un modèle de croissance lente destinéà centrer l’attention du lecteur sur les moyens de traiter les inégalités dans la hiérarchic des technologies de l’information.

In the US, minorities lag far behind the national average in holding jobs in the information technology and other high‐tech industries. On a broader global perspective, employment of persons of color of African, Pakistani, West Indian, and Bangladeshi origin in the United Kingdom and elsewhere in the European Union countries is also problematic. Clearly, these trends need to be reversed. The authors examine these and other digital divide issues from a global workforce diversity perspective and propose a trickle‐up model to focus the reader's attention on ways to address inequities in the information technology value chain.
The Future of Workforce Diversity in International Organisations: A Commentary
Authors: Triandis Harry C.
Published: June 2003

Cet article examine plusieurs sortes de diversités ethniques dans les organisations internationales. Il recense les facteurs susceptibles de rendre particul‐ièrement faciles ou difficiles les relations intergroupes relevant de ces diversités. Il propose aussi des solutions qui peuvent favoriser les relations intergroupes. L’avenir imposera une conjonction de ces pratiques pour assurer un bon fonctionnement des organisations internationales.

Humans must overcome distinct difficulties in getting along with those who are different from them. In this paper I will describe these difficulties, and try to identify some remedies that may overcome them. Hopefully, in the future, humans will undertake to overcome these difficulties by using one or more of the suggested remedies.
Economic Growth in Transition
Authors: George Donald A. R. , Oxley Les , Carlaw Ken
Published: June 2003

This paper sets the contributions to this issue in the context of a large and rapidly growing literature. It argues, on theoretical and empirical grounds, that future research should focus on transitional growth dynamics.
Specifying Human Capital
Authors: Wößmann Ludger
Published: June 2003

A review of the measures of the stock of human capital used in empirical growth research – including adult literacy rates, school enrollment ratios, and average years of schooling of the working‐age population – reveals that human capital is mostly poorly proxied. The simple use of the most common proxy, average years of schooling, misspecifies the relationship between education and the stock of human capital. Based on human capital theory, the specification of human capital is extended to allow for decreasing returns to education and for differences in the quality of a year of education. The different specifications give rise to hugely differing measures of the stock of human capital across countries, and development‐accounting results show that misspecified human capital measures can lead to severe underestimation of the development effect of human capital.
Growth and Unemployment: Towards a Theoretical Integration
Authors: Aricó Fabio
Published: June 2003

We observe in the literature of the past decade some innovative contributions identified a relation between economic growth and long run unemployment. This set of contributions is composed of very few elements, all characterized by a high degree of heterogeneity about their features and about their final results.

In the first part of the survey we provide a classification of these early contributions. In the second part we explore some alternative formulations of the problem and we present a wider set of models displaying interesting features, able to promote further studies about the persistence of unemployment in a growing economy.
The Influence of Institutional and Task Environment Relationships on Organizational Performance: The Canadian Construction Industry
Authors: Oliver Christine
Published: June 2003

This study compared the influence of organizations' relationships to the institutional versus task environment on organizational performance in the Canadian construction industry. This industry is characterized by both intense institutional regulation and strong market competition. Regulatory stringency and resource stringency were proposed as key determinants of the relative importance of institutional versus task environment relations in predicting organizational profitability and productivity. Results favoured the contribution of task environment relations to organizational success in support of an economic or strategic perspective on organizations. However, under highly stringent conditions, institutional relations were shown to be associated significantly with performance, suggesting that future research needs to consider both institutional and task environment effects on organizational performance and success.
Flexibility in Strategic Decision Making: Informational and Ideological Perspectives
Authors: Sharfman Mark P. , Dean Jr James W.
Published: June 2003

Adaptation is a crucial challenge for organizations, and an important theme in the strategy and organization theory literature. We still have much to learn, however, about the strategic processes by which adaptation is achieved. In this paper we focus on a basic element in the adaptation process, i.e. flexibility within the strategic decision‐making process. We concentrate on strategic decisions because these choices are the most important adaptations the firm makes. We suggest that the core of all organizational adaptation is a decision‐making process. Unless the decision‐making process itself is flexible, it is unlikely the organization can be flexible enough to adapt. We derive hypotheses concerning the factors that lead to flexibility (versus rigidity) from both information processing and ideological perspectives, and test them in a study involving 57 strategic decisions in 25 companies. Our results identify three contextual factors related to both perspectives ‐‐ including competitive threat, slack and uncertainty ‐‐ that are helpful in understanding flexibility in strategy decision making. While managers appear to be more flexible when decisions are uncertain, we found that in the very conditions where managers need the most flexibility (high competitive threat and low slack), they are least likely to be flexible.
Perceptions of Strategic Priorities, Consensus and Firm Performance
Authors: Bowman Cliff , Ambrosini Véronique
Published: June 2003

This paper reports the results of a study into strategy content, consensus, and firm performance. It is argued that the content of consensus, i.e. what the agreement is about, is of importance, and that strategic priorities concerned with the extant strategy are constructs that are strategically relevant to the exploration of consensus‐‐performance links. Whereas previous studies have used a statistical measure of consensus (summing standard deviations), in this study the managers' perceptions of strategic priorities have been plotted on two‐dimensional graphs. We argue that in contrast to the use of means and standard deviations, by plotting the patterns of perceptions produced by a management group, more information is retained for subsequent interpretation and hence a richer picture of the extent and nature of shared perceptions within a management group can be developed. Using this approach, data from 32 strategic business units were analysed, revealing patterns of consensus and performance. The paper discusses the implications of these patterns, and suggests some avenues for further research.
The Consultancy Process — An Insecure Business?
Authors: Sturdy Andrew
Published: June 2003

This paper examines the practices and perceptions of management consultants and their clients. The existing literature, which emphasizes managerial anxiety in accounting for the persistent use of consultants and, relatedly, the transience of management ideas is critically developed. It is argued that such accounts tend to be abstracted from the power relations of organizations and capitalism and to portray management as passive victims of confident consultants.

An alternative interactive model is proposed, which is based on reciprocal and self‐defeating concerns of clients and consultants to secure a sense of identity and control. This is explored empirically, highlighting the hitherto neglected active role of managers in resisting consultancy and the pressures and anxieties experienced by consultants. The account selectively draws on secondary sources as well as interview, documentary and survey research of IT strategy consultants and clients in the UK financial services sector.
Born Again? The Ethics and Efficacy of the Conversion Experience in Contemporary Management Development
Authors: Ackers Preston Peter, Diane
Published: June 2003

This article notes how a religious tone has seeped into the discourse of contemporary management development. This religious analogy is explored through the evangelical Christian notion of ‘conversion’ and radical personal change. The expansion of such a mind‐set into contemporary management thinking is related to the revival of the charismatic form of authority, in the writing of popular management gurus, such as Tom Peters. The search for new forms of ethical and social cohesion is considered. Next, this framework is applied to management development, with particular reference to one fairly mainstream, if intensive, programme. Through quotes from the managers involved, we illustrate how this programme employed emotional experience to remould individual personality and hence corporate culture in a way that mimics the religious conversion process. Finally, we question both whether a largely involuntary business organization has an ethical right to claim the ‘souls’ of its managers, and whether this is likely to be a realizable goal, in any case.
Middle Managers and the Employee Psychological Contract: Agency, Protection and Advancement
Authors: Hallier Jerry , James Philip
Published: June 2003

This paper investigates the construction and enactment of the employee psychological contract by a sample of middle‐level line and personnel managers responsible for introducing job change in the air traffic control sector. We show how middle managers' concerns with fulfilling their own contractual commitments to senior management are perceived to conflict with meeting obligations to subordinates under the employment agreement. Thus, we illustrate our main argument that middle managers who are exposed to more exacting performance demands and controls do not simply subordinate employee concerns to their own interests. They seek to disguise the presence and outcomes of employee disaffection and to manipulate the impressions of senior management. We conclude that far from increasing individual accountability at middle levels such stringent controls may yield interpersonal rivalry, lower standards of employee treatment and the subversion of corporate aims.
Contextual Determinants of Strategic Planning Processes
Authors: Yasai‐Ardekani  , Haug Ralph S.
Published: June 2003

This paper extends the study of contextual determinants of planning processes in three important directions. First, we present a comprehensive conceptualization of planning processes along six design dimensions. Second, in addition to examining the effects of environments, technology, and organizational complexity, we assess the effects of the organization's strategic orientation on the design of planning processes. Third, we move towards a configurational approach and explore the effects of concurrent presence of multiple contingencies. The study uses data from a large sample of North American corporations. The results suggest that the forces of context govern the design of planning processes. Furthermore, exploration of the effects of concurrent presence of multiple contingencies provides interesting illustrations of situations where the forces of context are aligned in the same direction as well as situations where the forces pull in opposite directions.
Integrating the Crisis Management Perspective into the Strategic Management Process
Authors: Preble John F.
Published: June 2003

The fields of strategic management and crisis management have been evolving separately despite their potential for synergistic integration. This paper explicates how adding crisis management's defensive/preventative capability to strategic management's offensive market positioning orientation can yield a more comprehensive approach to the strategic management of organizations. The traditional strategic management process is reviewed first and then analysed with respect to the gap that exists in this orientation. Examining the differences and similarities in perspectives between strategic management and crisis management and then reviewing the crisis management process provides a basis to proceed with a synthesis of the two fields. The paper concludes with the presentation of a new integrated strategic management process model that pushes forward the boundaries of strategic management and internalizes crisis management activities into that process.
HRMism and the Languages of Re‐presentation
Authors: Keenoy Tom
Published: June 2003

Storey, John (Ed.). Human Resource Management – A Critical Text. London and New York: Routledge, 1995, pp. 399, $17.99. (pbk).

Legge, Karen. Human Resource Management – Rhetorics and Realities. Basingstoke: Macmillan Press, 1995, pp. 385, £14.99. (pbk).
Editorial Introduction to the Special Issue: Thinking in Organizations
Authors: Hodgkinson Gerard P. , Thomas Alan B.
Published: June 2003

This special issue of the Journal of Management Studies is devoted to a topic which is rapidly becoming established as one of the central concerns of researchers within the interrelated fields of organization studies and management studies: the topic of managerial and organizational cognition. The purpose of this introductory article is to outline the key themes to be addressed and to contextualize the various contributions within the wider literature.

That interest in this rapidly developing area of study is on the ascendancy is evidenced by the growing number of special issues of journals (e.g. Eden, 1992; Meindl et al., 1994, Porac and Thomas, 1989), edited books and monographs (e.g. Cummings and Staw, 1990; Huff, 1990; Sims and Gioia, 1986; Weick, 1995), and informal conferences and networks, devoted to an increasingly diverse range of organizational phenomena, as viewed from a cognitive perspective. Moreover, the formation of the Managerial and Organizational Cognition Interest Group within the American Academy of Management represents a significant landmark in the development of cognitive approaches to the analysis of behaviour in organizations.
Contextual Influences on Thinking in Organizations: Learner and Tutor Orientations to Organizational Learning
Authors: Thomas Al‐Maskati Alan B., Huda
Published: June 2003

This paper examines the orientations, or frames of reference, of participants in five bank training programmes run by three banks in the United Kingdom. Adopting a symbolic interactionist approach and ethnographic methods of investigation, the paper attempts to elucidate the ways in which both learners and tutors thought about their roles in the learning events and the goals and strategies they adopted in order to cope with their situation. It is suggested that in order to understand the participants' behaviour it is necessary to take into account the contexts in which their actions were constructed. In particular it is proposed that the organizational context of the training programmes, which exposed the participants to the gaze of ‘hidden audiences’ of organizational superiors, inhibited the potential of the programmes as vehicles for learning. It is also argued that interactionist approaches using ethnographic methods, which enable organizational actors to be studied in situ, have an important contribution to make to the wider study of organizational cognition.