• E-Democracy from the Perspective of Local Elected Members.

      Parvez, Zahid (IGI Global: Idea Group Publishing, 2008)
      Although efforts for developing e-democracy have been underway for over a decade, recent literature indicates that its uptake by citizens and Elected Members (EMs) is still very low. This paper explores the underlying reasons for why this is so from the perspective of local EMs in the context of UK local authorities. It draws on findings reported in earlier works supplemented with primary case study data. Findings are interpreted through the lens of Giddens structuration theory, which assists in drawing out issues related to three dimensions of human agency: communication of meaning, exercising power and sanctioning behaviour. The paper abstracts categories of agency from the findings and uses these to formulate eight propositions for creating an e-friendly democratic culture and enhancing EMs uptake of e-democracy. These propositions provide an indication for future e-democracy research direction.
    • Economic Impact Assessment of Leicester Cathedral

      Robinson, Peter; Booker, Nick; Oriade, Ade (University of Wolverhampton, 2017-10)
    • Economic shifts: reconciling observations and rhetoric within the U.S. economy

      McManus, John; Jackson, Ian (Institute of Management Services, 2018-06-03)
      For the American people, déjà vu arrived in December 2007, and for the former President of the United States, Barack Obama, it was when he was inaugurated on 20 January 2009, inheriting the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of 1929. At the start of the 2007, financial crisis the United States (U.S.) was experiencing a boom in consumer spending. This came to an abrupt halt when the U.S. housing market collapsed resulting in an $8 trillion dollar housing debt and a steep decline in equity prices. Fallout from the housing crisis quickly spread to the broader economy through a complex web of unclear financial instruments tied to housing and dubious business practices of some financial firms. The resulting loss of wealth led to cutbacks in U.S. credit backed consumer spending. According to the U.S. Department of Labour1, roughly, 8.7 million jobs were shed from February 2008 to February 2010, and GDP contracted by 5 percent, making this the Great Recession the worst since the Great Depression.
    • Ed-blogs: the use of weblogs in learning, teaching and assessment

      Jones, Mark; Magill, Kevin (University of Wolverhampton, 2003)
    • Educational policies on access and reduction of poverty: The case of Ghana

      Dzidza, Peter Mawunyo; Jackson, Ian; Normanyo, Amatefee K.; Walsh, Michael; Ikejiaku, Brian-Vincent (Professors World Peace Academy, 2018-06-15)
      Education breaks the circle of poverty, halts the spread of inequality and creates sustainable development. However, education is expensive, creating insurmountable barriers to access in Africa. UN Millennium Development Goal 2 requested countries adopt universal primary education by 2015 in order to reduce poverty. This study assesses how policies on access to education influenced poverty reduction in Ghana. At a higher level of education, the chances of a person being non-poor increase, and being a public servant provides an advantage in retaining a position above the poverty line compared to the people employed in agriculture. This research validates the need for Ghana to emphasize access to both primary and secondary education by providing infrastructure, free education, and training for teachers at the various level of education.
    • The effects of poverty reduction strategies on artisanal fishing in Ghana: The case of Keta municipality

      Dzidza, Peter Mawunyo; Jackson, Ian; Normanyo, Amatefee K.; Walsh, Michael (Canadian Center of Science and Education, 2017-05-31)
      This paper assesses the level of poverty in Ghana after three decades of successive implementation of numerous poverty reduction strategies including Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) by various governments of Ghana. The Keta municipality in the Volta region, where artisanal fishing thrives, was chosen as a representative sample of the whole country. The authors identified eleven artisanal fishing communities in the selected area using systematic sampling. Data were collected on household consumption patterns. This process was used to determine the profile of poverty using the latest upper poverty line of Ghana and the Greer and Thorbecke (1984) poverty formula. Research findings show that the various poverty alleviation methods implemented over three decades by the Government of Ghana, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) significantly failed as they have not produced any meaningful effect on poverty reduction in the sample area. Finally, this paper offers further suggestions regarding how this poverty gap may be bridged using alternative methods.
    • Eine neubewertung der "gift relationship" in der Britischen geschichte zum freiwilligensektor

      Gosling, George Campbell (Oldenbourg Verlag, 2019-07-22)
      Es gibt nicht die eine Geschichtsschreibung, die karitative Arbeit, Kampagnen, gemeinnützige Organisationen, Freiwilligenverbände, Zivilgesellschaft, den dritten Sektor und Nichtregierungsorganisationen behandelt. Stattdessen lassen sich vier zentrale Forschungszweige ausmachen, die diesen Bereich neuerer britischer Geschichte abdecken. Sie sind nicht klar voneinander zu trennen, und Historiker wechseln von einem Schwerpunkt zum anderen, aber sie gingen dabei unterschiedlichen Zielsetzungen und Fragestellungen nach. Dazu zählt erstens eine Sozialgeschichte, die sich in erster Linie mit wohltätiger Arbeit und Armutsbekämpfung befasst und diese in den größeren Kontext der Beziehungen zwischen Arm und Reich einordnet. Zweitens ist eine Geschichte der Freiwilligenarbeit zu nennen, die aus dem Wunsch der ehrenamtlich Engagierten heraus entstanden ist, ihre Arbeit historisch zu verorten und aus der eigenen kollektiven Geschichte zu lernen. Drittens gibt es eine politische Geschichte, die sich mit der Beziehung zwischen dem freiwilligen Sektor und dem Staat befasst. Dazu gehören auch Arbeiten, deren besonderes Interesse den Nichtregierungsorganisationen nach 1945 gilt, die sich also einer speziellen Kategorie freiwilliger Organisationen widmen, welche Lobbyarbeit und Interessensvertretung betreiben. Und schließlich haben wir eine Geschichte des Humanitarismus, welche die Begegnungspunkte zwischen Großbritannien und der weiteren Welt untersucht, die von imperialistischen und internationalistischen Impulsen ausgegangen sind, sei es durch Fundraising oder durch die Entsendung freiwilliger Helfer nach Übersee.
    • Emotion: the missing part of systems methodologies

      Wang, Catherine L.; Ahmed, Pervaiz K. (MCB UP Ltd, 2003)
      This conceptual paper first examines the critical evolutionary stage of systems methodologies – from hard systems to soft systems, and elaborates their different focuses. This paper further explores the granularity of the “softness” of systems methodologies, and identifies a missing part: emotion. The emotional aspect of systems is associated to various soft elements of systems methodologies, such as value, perception, human well-being, creativity and learning. Unfortunately, existing literature does not demonstrate a sufficient consideration of the role of emotion in systems methodologies. This paper incorporates the emotional aspect and discusses the role of emotion in effective systems methodologies.
    • Employee referrals: A study of ‘close ties’ and career benefits in China

      Wang, Wen; Seifert, Roger (Elsevier, 2016-09-24)
      This study examines the relationship between employee referrals and employees’ job tenure through the lens of social capital theory. It does so by considering the tie strength (closeness of guanxi) between referrers and referred employees in the Chinese context. In particular, we examine the mediating effect of career benefits. We theorize that close guanxi has a significant and positive impact on the job tenure of referred employees, and that career benefits (such as having a managerial role) mediate the close guanxi effect on job tenure. This highlights the critical need to recognize the tie strength as between referrers and referred employees. The support for our hypotheses comes from the use of personnel records of 4,030 employees over 13 years in one large privately-owned manufacturer in China. Our study has theoretical and practical implications for the relational approach to tackle voluntary turnover in the workplace.
    • Employee roles in governance: contrasting the UK and German experience

      Lewis, Timothy J.; Machold, Silke; Oxtoby, David; Ahmed, Pervaiz K. (Emerald, 2004)
      The paper examines the role of employees in governance. The paper highlights from a theory basis that employee and shareholder utilities can be coincident. However, it shows that corporate practice with respect to employee involvement in governance and decision-making is diverse. The paper draws out the contrast in approaches between the Anglo-American and the German approach to employees by detailing differences in employee power, career patterns, ownership patterns and legal obligations. These lead to enactment of a different structural and cultural governance systems; which are encapsulated in the unitary board structure of the UK and the two-tier German approach. The strengths and limitations of the unitary board and two-tier boards are highlighted, and the case for convergence examined.
    • Empowering Disadvantaged Communities in the UK: Missing the Potential of Co-production

      Booth, Jane (SAGE Publications, 2019-06-01)
      Co-production is a model of service delivery aimed at engaging disadvantaged communities to generate a more responsive approach to the design of local services. Such a shift implies the empowerment of disadvantaged communities, transforming them from ‘passive’ recipients of services to more active citizens. However, its potential to enhance citizenship in the UK is becoming lost in the political landscape of austerity and neoliberalism, with behaviour change being imposed on disadvantaged communities rather than enabled through a genuine sharing of power. If co-production is to fulfil its potential, it requires not only disadvantaged communities to engage but also a transformation of the paternalistic professional practices and institutional cultures that reproduce the power relationship between service users and service providers. Furthermore, without engaging citizens in ideological debate, making visible the systemic nature of inequalities, it is hard to see how co-production can bring about the social change it implies. </jats:p>
    • Encouraging Reflective practice through the introduction of e-portfolios: a comparison of the postgraduate and undergraduate experience.

      Maiden, Barbara; Kinsey, Susan (University of Wolverhampton, 2006)
      Encouraging students to reflect on their learning and life experiences and making sense of these reflections has been widely reported in the literature as problematic (Barclay 1997, Stalker et al 2001). Pedagogic responses aimed at deepening reflection have often encouraged the use of learning journals to make sense of theory in the light of students’ practice. There is evidence that students find it difficult to engage in this process in anything but a superficial and cursory way (Betts 2004). This innovation project stemmed from a desire to utilise the newly developed electronic portfolio, Pebblepad, as a mechanism for encouraging a more systematic and structured approach to reflection thereby assisting in overcoming the barriers to engagement. The aim of this project was to introduce, trial and evaluate the tools offered by the e portfolio system to two cohorts of first year part-time postgraduate HR Diploma students in the encouragement of reflective practice. In reality this introduction proved to be problematic as described later in this report, hence the scope of the project was widened to include the experiences of first year cohorts of undergraduates studying for BA Honours in Human Resource Management and Business. This has provided the opportunity for valuable comparison of the experiences at post and undergraduate level. Prior to this project students would submit a summative piece of work for assessment which was often constructed in retrospect rather than being indicative of continuous review and sense making of the learning experience. The possibilities for formative and timely feedback provided by Pebblepad appeared to yield a rich foundation for encouraging more critical reflection. The introduction of the e portfolio for the postgraduate student cohorts was embedded within module HR 4059 Workbased Project and Personal Development. Students are required as part of their assessment on their individual project, to reflect and analyse their experiences of undertaking research, developing themselves and making sense of academic ideas over the course of the year. The undergraduate students studying HR 1007 Learning and Development are asked to reflect on their learning experiences during a Semester and comment on their progress as independent learners demonstrated through a piece of reflective writing. The two modules therefore have similarities in requiring sense to be made of a variety of experiences over time.
    • Enhancing learning support for Masters dissertation students in management and business.

      Edwards, Rob (University of Wolverhampton, 2002)
      This paper reports on a project that has formed the pilot phase of a development initiative that aims to progressively enhance the learning support available to students completing postgraduate dissertations in management and business. The origins of the project lie in reflection on conversations with students, and with colleagues at Wolverhampton and elsewhere, regarding their experience of undertaking, or supervising, research at Masters level. There seemed to be quite a widespread perception of a developing gap between students’ general appreciation of the characteristics of a Masters dissertation, and their grasp of the generic process by which a specific, researchable project is formulated, implemented and written-up within an appropriate timescale. The evidence of a subsequent review of literature leant weight to the view that the rate at which methodological debate is evolving, particularly in the multidisciplinary domain of management and business, is resulting in some mixed and confusing messages on the characteristics and expectations of Masters dissertations being received by postgraduate students.
    • Enhancing the accountability and transparency of transnational police cooperation within the European Union

      McDaniel, John; Lavorgna, Anita; McDaniel, John LM; Stonard, Karlie; Cox, David J (Routledge, 2019-10-15)
      The EU’s development of advanced instruments and processes of police cooperation on both policy and operational fronts presents new challenges and opportunities for conventional approaches to police accountability and transparency. Although no substantive mention is made of police accountability under Title V of the Lisbon Treaty 2009, it can be expected that the EU’s common transnational measures draw upon, reconcile and enhance Member State approaches to police accountability which are rooted in long-standing constitutional, legal and administrative traditions and values. This chapter will consider whether and to what extent various Member State norms on police accountability and transparency are informing the concept, design and operation of the EU policing regime and vice versa. More particularly, it will recommend the development of a new ethos of ‘transnational police accountability’ which should guide and shape EU policy-making in this area.
    • Enron and the End of Corporate Governance.

      Campbell, David; Griffin, Stephen (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2006)
      This book - one in the four-volume set, Global Governance and the Quest for Justice - focuses on the role of corporations in an increasingly globalised world. Against the backcloth of perceived abuse of corporate power - alleged violations of human rights, degradation of the environment, abuse of labour, Enron-style financial scandals, and the like - the chapters in this collection examine the nature and function of the corporation as well as the way in which we should understand corporate governance and the power of transnational corporations. Central to the question is the issue of accountability, as well as the questions of social and environmental responsibility - here the authors ask whether corporations should be more accountable relative to the broader public interest, and suggest that public law approaches to accountability may offer a way forward. Consideration is also given to the most appropriate regulatory locus (local, regional, or international) and the most effective form of response to the deficit in corporate responsibility and the abuse of corporate power. For example, are transnational corporations most effectively regulated internationally (e.g., by the United Nations), regionally (e.g., by the EU or NAFTA) or locally (e.g., through stringent reporting requirements and implementation of triple bottom line standards)?
    • Entrepreneurship education as human capital: implications for youth self-employment and conflict mitigation in sub-Saharan Africa

      Anosike, Paschal (Sage, 2018-11-15)
      Previous research has focused on stable developed economies to predict that human capital and entrepreneurship education (EE) provision at the higher education (HE) level will positively affect entrepreneurial success. This article draws on the outcome of recent EE projects in two HE institutions in a conflict-torn northern Nigeria as a proxy to advocate the introduction of entrepreneurship as a compulsory component into the secondary school curriculum in Sub-Saharan Africa. Using semi-structured interview data, it is found that the provision of EE at secondary education level could help to facilitate human capital development and assist efforts to curb youth unemployment. Specifically, the study suggests that EE comprises both generic and specific human capital that increases an individual’s ability to identify and exploit opportunities, particularly for young people, and in doing so helps to reduce their vulnerability to poverty and involvement in armed conflict. Suggestions for future research and policy considerations are provided.
    • Entrepreneurship education knowledge transfer in a conflict sub-Saharan African context

      Anosike, Paschal (Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 2018-08-13)
      Purpose - This paper explores how entrepreneurship education interacts with knowledge transfer and entrepreneurial behaviour in a conflict sub-Saharan African context. Design/methodology/approach - In-depth telephone interviews of 20 participants who benefited from entrepreneurship education knowledge transfer were used to document and analyse the effect of entrepreneurship education on their behaviours as micro-entrepreneurs in a conflict zone. Findings – These participants exhibited rare forms of innovative behaviour, through their business skills, gained from their involvement in entrepreneurship education. In relation to the effect of the conflict on their entrepreneurial behaviours, whereas it emerged the conflict was not the major barrier to entrepreneurial intentions, it however affected how they made strategic decisions about downsizing, advertising and future business plans. Consequently, these decisions altered at different junctures because of the conflict and therefore defined their coping strategies. Policy implications – The paper advocates a policy shift towards a more collaborative sub-regional approach to tackling the underlying causes of conflict in sub-Saharan Africa through investment in EE strategies as a spur to economic development. Central to this are a priori assumptions about economically disadvantaged populations and their symbiotic relationship with conflict, a phenomenon frequently exploited by armed groups with deviant agenda. Thus, access to employment opportunities could benefit disadvantaged populations, thereby plays a decisive role in conflict mitigation. Originality and value – The paper provides empirical analysis integrating entrepreneurship education with knowledge transfer and entrepreneurial behaviour in a conflict sub-Saharan African context. In this way, novel insights are provided that contribute to current efforts aimed at developing a robust theoretical and conceptual foundation for EE domain.
    • Environmental and societal attitudes to working hours in gendered perspective: patterns, preferences and policy

      Arntsen, Alexandra; Philp, Bruce; Donegani, Chiara Paola (Taylor and Francis, 2019-01-31)
      This paper begins from the premise that environmental degradation is a profound and present threat and that work time reduction (WTR) ― with an associated reduction in consumption ― is one of a number of strategies which can be adopted to combat it. As a precursor to looking at how such policies can be supported, our research questions whether environmental attitudes are congruent with work time patterns and preferences. Our initial hypothesis was that those who care most for the environment would work less hours than those who exhibit lower levels of environmental concern, and prefer to do so. However, contra our expectations, our empirical analysis of the European Social Survey shows that those who state they care most about the environment are more likely to work longer hours, and prefer to do so. Overall, men tend to be less concerned about the environment, and work longer. Caring responsibilities, in contrast, fall disproportionately on women. We argue that this reflects traditional gender roles which are a residual from the social norm of the male breadwinner model. Given WTR as an environmental policy the task is to influence preferences and “green” human behaviour, especially among men.
    • Environmental dynamism, trust and dynamic capabilities of family businesses

      Wang, Yong (Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 2016-05-30)
      Purpose – Dynamic capabilities are regarded as the bedrock of firms that survive in a dynamic environment. Notwithstanding this perspective, little research has been implemented in understanding dynamic capabilities of family firms. This paper aims to investigate the relationship between environmental dynamism and dynamic capabilities of family businesses, and the moderating effect of trust on this relationship. Design/methodology/approach - A quantitative survey was executed with the sampling frame outlined based on the Hemscott Company Guru database. 137 useful responses were employed in this study. Findings – The results suggest that environmental dynamism is an antecedent of dynamic capabilities. Furthermore, findings show the presence of trust moderates the environmental dynamism-dynamic capabilities nexus. Research limitations/implications - The cross-sectional design of the study determines that it can only proffer a snapshot of the scenario. In addition, the exclusion of non-incorporated firms in the sample because of the nature of the Hemscott database constrains the generalisability of the study. Future studies in a similar vein may be implemented through national/local development agencies to overcome this barrier. Originality/value - The unique intertwined family and business system embedded in family firms has led to the assumption that trust will influence the environmental dynamism-dynamic capabilities nexus. The current study confirms this assumption and offers a perspective that helps appreciate the environment-business relationship in family businesses.
    • Environmental impacts of the Greek electricity generation sector

      Theodosiou, Giorgos; Koroneos, Christopher; Stylos, Nikolaos (Elsevier, 2014-03)
      Anthropogenic activities, such as the use of fossil energy sources for electricity generation, are the main contributors to the pollution of the environment. The main energy source used in the Greek electricity generation sector is lignite as there are large reserves in the country. Petroleum is also used at a great extent mainly in the islands in the autonomous power generation systems, while the use of natural gas is also increasing. Although lignite is a “cheap” energy source, the environmental impacts associated with its use are high, something that applies also for petroleum and in a lower extent with natural gas. The total net production of electricity from thermal power plants in Greece accounts for almost 90% of the total electricity production, while only 10% derives from hydroelectric energy and other renewable energy sources (RES). A typical example of the significance of the environmental impacts associated with the electricity generation sector is the fact that almost 74% of the total CO2 emissions in the country derive from this sector. The work presented in this paper is focused in investigating the environmental impacts associated with the atmospheric emissions and other wastes that are produced during the life cycle of the energy sources (fossil and RES) used for electricity generation in Greece. The environmental evaluation of the different energy sources is performed through the life cycle analysis methodology and the Eco-indicator 99 method and the results are used for comparison purposes.