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As recently as one generation ago, the term organization was synonymous with stasis, reliability, hierarchy and disciplined productivity. The new guiding principles of management practise, meanwhile, are dynamism, flexibility, teams and emancipated interactivity. The new key term “network” has summed up these contemporary organizational trends. This study suggests the interpretation of networks as social capital of individuals and organizations. This understanding requires a theoretical and methodological refocusing on the actions of the organization’s members. The present study places a variant of action theory – socioeconomic exchange theory – centre stage, fuses this theory with the toolkit of social network analysis and puts the resulting synthesis to the test by examining cooperation among equal members of an organization.
In this book, internationally renowned scholars and practitioners elaborate on political as well as managerial questions, e.g. how to make overriding Public Governance changes the ’guiding model’ for a now needed stronger strategic approach. More specifically, their focus is on how moves towards a re-positioning as an enabling authority are to be made drivers for adapting management systems across all levels. In accordance with present developments, the authors explain how changes in the overall governance structure have to be used to adapt leadership practices in a more output-oriented or even entrepreneurial fashion. Overall, the underlying idea is to provide some further basics for a public sector type of a design-oriented management science.
Many would say that innovation is a major driving force in our economy but they would be wrong. Innovation has driven life on earth for about 4 billion years. Thus there is no reason to wonder why it is so very important in all aspects of our lives. As academics we are interested in studying innovation from many different perspectives. But the subject is not only of interest to academics. Both industry and government can obtain distinct advantage from innovation. There is also the public services sector and the NGOs as well. It is essential to remember that innovation is not a solitary activity: it is intensely based on relationships which are a key to its success. Heather Fulford is a leading authority on innovation and she has selected 10 important pieces of research which she believes will be of use to all interested readers. The ten cases and research studies presented in this volume serve to illustrate the reach and scope of innovation. Readers, researchers, teachers and students will find this book very rewarding.
Metropolitan research requires multidisciplinary perspectives in order to do justice to the complexities of metropolitan regions. This volume provides a scholarly and accessible overview of key methods and approaches in metropolitan research from a uniquely broad range of disciplines including architectural history, art history, heritage conservation, literary and cultural studies, spatial planning and planning theory, geoinformatics, urban sociology, economic geography, operations research, technology studies, transport planning, aquatic ecosystems research and urban epidemiology. It is this scope of disciplinary - and increasingly also interdisciplinary - approaches that allows metropolitan research to address recent societal challenges of urban life, such as mobility, health, diversity or sustainability.
This book offers a short history of business administration in four parts. Part 1 takes the reader from 8000 BCE with the development of simple control techniques to the middle of the nineteenth century. At this time, normative, empirical, and theoretical approaches to business problems in the industrial area were developed. Furthermore, more powerful methodologies came into use. In Part 2, the criteria for science are discussed and related to the development of business administration as a science at the beginning of the twentieth century. Part 3 demonstrates, using Germany as an example, the development of business administration as strongly influenced by its societal environment. The case...
Europe is getting closer. So are European social sciences. However, this is easier done in theory development and central research questions. When it comes to data the mutual understanding is far from perfect, due to a lack of knowledge about the data bases of the respective countries and the EU in general. This is particularly true when it comes to the regional level. This volume will help to improve the insight into the rich stock of European datasets which cover any kind of regional information. Many institutions ranging from statistical offices to more academic research centres and commercial enterprises report their offerings with special emphasis on the regional level (e.g. European Community Household Panel, European Social Survey, Labour Force Survey). Central categories such as NUTS and LAU are explained and discussed. In addition, typical examples of socio-economic cross-border and multi-level studies highlight the power of a regionalized European perspective. Furthermore, information about special tools for such type of analysis is included in the volume.
For several decades now, advanced economies across the globe have been undergoing a process of rapid transformation towards becoming knowledge economies. It is now widely recognized that intangible capital has been a crucial element in the growth performance of these economies and their firms. In the author's view, "intangible capital" serves as the most appropriate umbrella term for capturing several dimensions of capital that are not tangible in nature but are nevertheless fundamentally important for growth. The term encompasses investments in education (human capital) and in informal (social capital) and formal (rule of law) institutions by the public sector and households, as well as inv...