Has the CSR engagement of electrical companies had an effect on their performance? A closer look at the environment

Even though electrical companies attain a top ranking in the publication of CSR reports, they are often accused of 'green‐washing' due to their bad environmental reputation. The current economic crisis is testing their real CSR commitment more than ever, especially when this goes beyond its economic consequences. Based on a worldwide sample of electrical companies, we are going to study why companies are being socially responsible. We wish to know if it is due to the impact on the firms' performance or whether there are other motives (legitimation, improving their reputation) that lead companies to carry out these practices. We will also consider if it changes across the kind of CSR action considered. The results show that there is an economic justification beyond the socially responsible behaviour of the electrical companies. Additionally, most kinds of CSR action (community, diversity, corporate governance, product responsibility) are also carried out looking for economic rewards. However, the CSR actions oriented to the environment are mainly motivated by their need to improve their image and reverse their negative impact

Inspirational Teaching: Beyond Excellence and Towards Collaboration for Learning with Sustained Impact

Within higher education, there is a continued focus on teaching quality, with teaching excellence often linked to the idea of engaging and motivating students. This article examines the concept of ‘inspirational’ teaching, going beyond notions of excellent teaching, and proposes that inspirational teaching is defined by being transformational in the sense that it has a sustained positive impact on student learning. By exploring current literature on inspirational teaching, including some literature on teaching excellence, four overarching themes are identified as constituents of inspirational teaching: knowledge and passion for the subject, understanding learning and knowledge, constructive and challenging learning environment and students as individuals, partners and colleagues. The practices of the inspirational teachers presented are characterised by their focus on student learning rather than teacher performance and so indicate that inspirational teaching is an outcome that cannot be reduced to a set of characteristics or practices. Finally, we conclude that collaborative and scholarly relationships between students and teachers underpin these four themes and are central to creating inspirational learning experiences

Nine-Mile Prairie

I’m going there today. But I can’t find the right preposition to capture the experience. Will I go onto the prairie, as if it were the upper surface of something, a plane or a platform to pass over? Will I go into the prairie, as if it were something that can surround or envelop me like an economic recession or a waiting room? Will I go through the prairie, as if it were a substance like water or an ordeal like menopause to move into and beyond? Or will I go around the prairie, metaphorically skirting its edges, since it is an enigma whose meaning I’ve yet to discover? And what of the articles a or the? Will I go to a prairie, a being a fragment of the once vast grassland in the center of North America, or will I go to the prairie, the whole from which the relict is preserved or somehow escaped destruction, a whole that still exists, even if only in the imagination? What I can say: I’m going there today

Warrior Mothers: Narratives of Women from the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA)

The archetype of the mother is always perceived as ‘pacifist’ in war and conflict situations. However, there are numerous examples when mothers are not ‘pacifist’ but become participants and perpetrators of war. This article, through the analysis of the experiences of the mothers in the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), an armed nationalist organization waging war against the Indian nation-state to establish ‘sovereignty’ and ‘liberate’ Assam since1979, argues that mothers can also be warriors, going beyond their ‘pacifist’ archetype. With the analysis of the oral narratives of the women cadres of the organization, this article discusses how these mothers tried to negotiate their identity of being warriors and mothers and aims to set an alternative identity of the mother as ‘warrior-mother’

HUMAN CAPITAL STRATEGIST TO OPTIMIZE ORGANIZATION EFFECTIVENESS IN ALLIANCE AND NETWORKING

Today, many firms were struggling with the combined impact of high interest rates, growing international competition and shrinking productivity, which led to the demand for greater accountability in all functions of the company. The new human resource function was not exempt from this trend, and while methods for assessing the costs and benefits of HR programs were available, they were not widely utilized. Strategic alliances between firms are now a ubiquitous phenomenon. Their proliferation has led to a growing stream of research by strategy and organizational scholars who have examined some of the causes and consequences of such partnerships, mostly at the dyadic level. It will develop a social network perspective on some of the key questions associated with strategic alliances, going beyond the dyadic level to the larger network in which alliances are embedded. Over the years, there has been tremendous emphasis placed on HR practitioners becoming strategic business partners and being a value-added source within organizations. Furthermore, the HR function is often viewed as an expense-generator and an administrative function and not as a value-added partner. Businesses have long understood the importance of networking and how it helps them grow their business through referrals. In recent years, there has been a shift from traditional local networking events arranged by chambers or associations to online networking, which is global in nature. According to all reality conditions above and the fundamental basic concept that HR always become an specific asset and have several roles in organization to reach goals, So, the specific question is how we prepare our HR to have strong capabilities as Human Capital (HC) to enable the organization network activities implementation will be more effective and efficient. This condition will impact organization value and its capability to have higher competitive advantage chance

Book Review of "The Happiness Industry: How the Government and Big Business Sold Us Well-Being"

One may believe that reviewing a book on the “happiness industry” for the International Society for Humor Studies shows that humor is starting to embrace its natural bedfellow, positive psychology. However, before we all rush to jump on this new focus of interest, it might be worth considering the critiques offered by the author, William Davies. In his book Davies explores how and why there has been a shift in how we pursue happiness. He argues that happiness has moved away from being a personal goal to one that is used and controlled by a myriad of public entities, exploited by corporations to increase productivity, and even appearing on government agendas. Going beyond his own political and economic expertise, Davies also builds arguments that encompass practices within neuroscience and the science of psycholog

Wiping Blood from the Walls: Medea’s Pleasures of Terror

I was there and then I wasn’t. The actors were before me and then they weren’t. The curtain opened, it closed, and—in the play of appearances and disappearances—something was seen in the vanishings. Remaining, what I now write is a kind of recollected narrative, a reportorial account of British director Deborah Warner’s recent adaptation of Euripides’ Medea. As a member of its audience one evening, I look back from the strict vantage of the remembered event, from the dual perspective of having seen the performance, but of seeing it no longer, of having been a spectator to the play, but now being a spectator to my memories of it. For my time in the theatre had at its core an ephemeral dimension easily forgotten, but fundamental: “now you see it, now you don’t.” Coming and going as it did, Medea (and my seeing of it) nonetheless engendered an unexpectedly rich afterlife that extended beyond its immediate staging, beyond this one particular evening, as the play was later involuntarily recalled, or willfully summoned into posthumous shape and dimension

As Is

You are bidding on one (1) authentic BRIAN OLIU. The item has some damage or imperfection as noted here, and is sold AS IS. The item is sold under the impression that it will be used for parts, because the item is beyond repair. This item DOES NOT WORK and is being sold as NOT WORKING. From The Manufacturer: There came a point in BRIAN OLIU\u27s life that he felt he deserved more space in the world. Those who chose not to gain mass were giving in, giving in to nothing; the air presses against them, creeping up and eating away space in between thighs and underneath chins. Everyone is allocated a certain amount of characters, and to use any less than the allocated amount would be going against our creator and doing us a disservice