Business and Economy
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Dr Richard Gunton | A Pluralistic Evaluation Framework that Responds to the Complex Challenges We Face
Societies across the world are facing complex sustainability challenges. We are changing the climate, over-consuming resources, and failing to appreciate the connections between water, energy, and food systems. However, well-meaning policy responses can often produce unintended consequences and controversy, because important factors are overlooked. Many existing evaluation methods focus on accountability and whether a policy has achieved stated objectives. This does not address whether the outcomes have delivered real benefits in the eyes of all stakeholders. There is an urgent need for a more inclusive tool to shape and evaluate policies.
Professor Deborah Bleviss | Why a Long-admired Brazilian Public Transport System is More Relevant Than Ever
The Brazilian city of Curitiba became famous in the 1980s for its environmental strategies and public transportation system, introduced by three-time mayor, Jaime Lerner. Many leaders from around the world travelled to Curitiba to observe and try to copy what the city had accomplished. In recent years, however, with the political scandals, economic malaise and social problems that have dogged Brazil, some now question whether Curitiba remains a relevant model. In a recent paper, Professor Deborah Bleviss explains why the city’s experiences remain relevant today.
Professor Xiaobei Li | How Companies Can Harness HR Management to Thrive in a Changing World
Companies today exist in a changing world, bringing both opportunities for growth and increasingly complex challenges. To survive and thrive, organisations need a robust understanding of HR management. Professor Xiaobei Li at Shanghai Business School and colleagues from various universities recently explored how companies can harness HR management to motivate their staff, towards ensuring high performance into the future.
Dr. Ze (Mia) Zhu | The Promise of Just-in-Time Adaptive Interventions in Organizational Settings
The emotional state and job performance of an employee can greatly fluctuate over minutes, hours and days. Towards supporting employee wellbeing and maximizing productivity, Dr. Ze (Mia) Zhu at the University of Nebraska Omaha and her colleagues at George Mason University recently explored the potential of Just-in-Time Adaptive Interventions – or JITAIs. JITAIs encourage positive change in organizations, by intervening at the right moment and in the right context.
Dr Claudia Manzi – Dr Eleonora Crapolicchio | How Companies Can Retain Young Workers
Younger workers will have a far higher number of jobs throughout their careers, compared to previous generations. Accordingly, they display lower organisational commitment than the baby boomer generation. It is thus more important than ever for companies to understand how to attract and retain talent. The person-organisation fit theory is often used to assess the relationship between an organisation and its employees. It measures the compatibility between workers and organizations in terms of needs, values, interests, and behaviour, taking into consideration the company’s culture, mission, and strategy.
Professor Meng Li – Professor Chengrui Xiao | Protecting Workers’ Welfare and Economic Efficiency through Equitable Fiscal Policies
In most developed countries and major developing countries, there has been a recent increase in income and wealth inequality. A small, affluent pocket of the population obtains their income from salary and assets, whilst the larger, less affluent population receives only labour earnings. Because of these different sources of income, it is likely that economic shocks and resulting fiscal policies affect these groups in different ways. Policy experiments are a tool used by economists to explore the impact of different fiscal policies, such as taxation and public spending. For example, they might seek to understand policy responses to economic expansions and contractions, and their outcomes on inequality.
Professor Meng Li | How Loss-averse Behaviour of Individuals Affects National Economic Systems
Loss aversion is a concept in behavioural economics that refers to the tendency of people to strongly prefer avoiding losses rather than acquiring equivalent gains. Put simply, individuals often feel the negative emotions of losing something more intensely than the positive emotions of gaining it. For example, if someone is given £100 and loses £50, they are likely to feel much worse than if they had simply been given £50, despite an equal net gain. These behavioural patterns mean that people make very different decisions than traditional economic theories predict.
Professor Elliot Bendoly | OUtCoMES: A New Framework to Guide Analytical Evidence-based Projects
Making the best, practical use of analysis, is often far from straightforward. Less than half of analytics projects succeed. Professor Elliot Bendoly, of the Ohio State University’s Fisher School of Business, has been working with colleagues and industry professionals to advance a modern project-management framework, the OUtCoMES Cycle, which aims to avoid these lost opportunities.
Dr Olga Golubeva | How to Use Accounting to Facilitate Sustainable Development
Since the 1980s, the three sustainability directions, including social, environmental, and economic pillars, have guided theoretical developments and policy-making efforts worldwide. Dr Olga Golubeva at Stockholm Business School, Stockholm University, explored the potential of accounting to contribute to the three pillars framework. Olga capitalises on the ability of the accounting discipline to reflect and record organisational and social surroundings.
Fiona Niebuhr | Exploring Employees’ Abilities to Adapt to Flexible Working Conditions
The world of work is continuously transforming, due to innovation and global competition. This has intensified due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which drove changes in our working lives. Many employees are now given more flexibility and autonomy to shape their own work. This can be positive for employees, as it shifts the workforce away from traditional top-down approaches, in which workers have little agency. However, it can also be a burden that is forced upon employees who have little choice but to take on this responsibility.
Professor Roger Jensen | Assessing Workplace Hazards Using Risk Matrices
Occupational safety & health is a field that assesses hazards in workplace settings. It involves anticipating hazardous events that could harm workers, estimating the likelihood that an event will occur, and devising measures to prevent or mitigate harm. In this way, safety & health professionals help to greatly reduce the risk of injuries, illnesses and deaths.
Professor Carl Maertz | How Can Companies Retain High-performing Employees? Good Data is Key!
Identifying why staff voluntarily leave their roles, and implementing strategies to decrease these departures, remains one of the most important activities for frontline managers. Past research has suggested methods to reduce turnover. However, this research has not adequately distinguished between functional turnover, which incurs lower costs for the organisation, and dysfunctional turnover, which incurs higher costs.
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