Current Advancements of and Future Developments for Fourth Party Logistics in a Digital Future

This paper aims to analyze the potential future of the 4PL concept based on expert opinions with special regard to the influence of digitalization coming with a disruptive trans-formation of supply chains. Service arrangements, provider capabilities and benefits resulting from a 4PL partnership are compared in current and future configurations. The research follows an explorative mixed methods approach with semi structured interviews followed by an expert panel. This builds a basis for an online survey questionnaire to inquire on important future aspects for the 4PL concept by a sample of respondents from multinational companies. Our results show a clear trend away from simply organizing transportation and logistics activities towards the provision of an IT platform as well as further value-added service activities such as planning, analytics and monitoring. Along with this, IT capabilities appear to be an important differentiator for 4PL providers in the future. Moreover, relationships between 4PL providers and their clients become closer and more strategic, which leads to a customer valuing not only direct cost reductions but rather improvements resulting from optimized operations through superior analysis and planning functions

Knowledge sharing in technology alliances

knowledge, alliance, technology

From workers education to societal competencies: approaches to a critical, emancipatory education for democracy

This article presents two conceptions concerning critical political education for workers, developed in Germany in the 1960s and the 1990s respectively. First, the conception of “Sociological Imagination and Exemplary Learning” published in 1968 by the German philosopher and sociologist Oskar Negt (1975). Further the elaboration of this conception, which since the 1980s is known as “Societal Competencies“ (Negt, 1986). These competencies concern fundamental knowledge, which enables people to make political judgments, and act politically in democratic societies in an enlightened and reflected way. This conception deliberately distinguishes itself from the economic, instrumentalist notions of key qualifications and key competencies, which at least since the 1970s have been discussed with the aim of maintaining individual employability and competitiveness. ‘Societal competencies’ aim for individual and collective emancipation, the development of the capability to make judgments, and autonomy in the sense of the enlightened political agency and participation in democratization processes. (DIPF/Orig.

From workers education to societal competencies: approaches to a critical, emancipatory education for democracy

This article presents two conceptions concerning critical political education for workers, developed in Germany in the 1960s and the 1990s respectively. First, the conception of “Sociological Imagination and Exemplary Learning” published in 1968 by the German philosopher and sociologist Oskar Negt (1975). Further the elaboration of this conception, which since the 1980s is known as “Societal Competencies“ (Negt, 1986). These competencies concern fundamental knowledge, which enables people to make political judgments, and act politically in democratic societies in an enlightened and reflected way. This conception deliberately distinguishes itself from the economic, instrumentalist notions of key qualifications and key competencies, which at least since the 1970s have been discussed with the aim of maintaining individual employability and competitiveness. ‘Societal competencies’ aim for individual and collective emancipation, the development of the capability to make judgments, and autonomy in the sense of the enlightened political agency and participation in democratization processes. (DIPF/Orig.

The Global People landscaping study: intercultural effectiveness in global education partnerships

The Context The Higher Education sector in the UK is experiencing a period of rapid and competitive internationalisation. The market for higher education, at undergraduate and post graduate levels, is now truly global: many potential students can make choices about study destinations between an enormous range of institutions in any of the five continents. The audience for research is also global, with a proliferation of domestic and international journals, a multitude of international conferences in every discipline and widely disseminated international indices, ranking universities in terms of their publication and teaching performance. In particular, the recent growth of the major Asian economies has re-shaped the profile of many UK universities both in the composition of their student bodies and also in the number, nature and importance of their overseas partnerships. This Study It is within this context that the Global People project has been established, with the objective of providing knowledge and resources that will support those in the UK Higher Education sector who work, or wish to work, in international collaborations. Phases 1 and 2 of the eChina Programme (see Section1, Introduction) generated a great deal of learning about managing international education projects and Phase 3 of the Programme, the Global People project, was instigated with the aim of capturing this emergent knowledge for the benefit of others. This current report is a Landscaping Study that argues for the value of developing intercultural competence in order to better understand, create and manage productive and enjoyable partnerships with educational institutions outside the UK. Our arguments are supported by data from a wide range of research in disciplines as diverse as applied linguistics and international management. Key Findings a) The need for cultural awareness and sensitivity to diversity has been well established from studies in a range of disciplines. The high risks of mishandling intercultural interaction have prompted the development of a substantial literature both on perceived cultural differences and on the competencies that might be acquired to deal with this challenge. Although this concern has been driven by the financial requirements of international business, the internationalisation of Higher Education has imposed similar requirements on universities engaging in international collaboration. The challenge for academics and project managers is, within limited resources, to develop effective ways of identifying and acquiring the competencies needed to be interculturally effective. b) Interest in the cultural values of Chinese society has never been higher as global interaction with China, through business, government, education and science expands exponentially. There is a real danger in generalising about any nation’s cultural values and especially one where society and economy are changing so rapidly. However, the recent literature on China – from a number of disciplinary perspectives – argues that the influence of traditional Confucian values on Chinese behaviour is still strong. This means that values such as propriety, trustworthiness and the desire for harmony are still reflected in behaviour that is more relationship-based, restrained and consensual than may be normal in Western business relations. Working with Chinese partners will still be facilitated by an understanding of the centrality of social networks to Chinese private and public life and interaction in working teams will benefit from an appreciation of the Chinese respect for hierarchy and reluctance to pass judgement openly on colleagues. c) The majority of the work done on the impact of culture on e-learning has focused on issues of content and materials design. Too frequently this has been a concern for adaptation of existing materials for a local audience, rather than collaborative development of new materials by an intercultural team. As a consequence, there is limited insight into the complexities of designing and delivering learning programmes in different cultural contexts. What the research does show is that learning styles and preferences can vary between cultures and that this is related to the varying pedagogies dominant in particular national cultures. Understanding the implications of this diversity of pedagogies and reconciling cultural differences remain substantial challenges for those adapting or designing online learning programmes across a variety of cultures. d) Research into the performance of international teams offers many insights into good management practice. Principles of team selection, development, leadership and collaboration are well-established in the literature on global management and multinational partnerships. These principles recognise the importance of organisational culture, occupational culture and team roles as additional dimensions to that of national culture in influencing behaviour in project groups. International collaborations are viewed as complex dynamic systems which move through a life cycle, with valuable opportunities for reflection, learning and performance improvement. The implementation of transparent, and mutually agreed, norms, procedures and objectives is regarded as crucial to effective collaboration. e) At the level of the individual, an extensive literature exists on the competencies required to be effective in intercultural interaction. There is an apparently high degree of consensus on the core competencies that should be acquired by the culturally effective individual. Chief among these are self-awareness, cultural knowledge, language proficiency, openness, flexibility and communication skills. However, in many cases there is, at best, limited data to support the theories put forward. There is also a lack of clarity in the use of terminology, with no guarantee that researchers are using terms in the same way. The more detailed, applied research has succeeded in teasing out the knowledge and skills that may be critical in successful interaction by further breaking down broad competencies (e.g. ‘openness’) into more detailed behaviours (‘openness to new thinking; positive acceptance of different behaviour). A Way Forward A major obstacle to accessing and utilising the current knowledge and guidance on intercultural effectiveness is its dispersion across a large number of disciplines and the consequent disparity of the conceptual models and terminology employed. A framework for understanding intercultural effectiveness in international projects has a very high potential value to a wide range of professionals engaged in cross-cultural collaboration. There is substantial learning to be gained from the insights of different research disciplines but these insights need to be brought together in a way that practitioners from any field can access them without specialist knowledge. These ambitions have materialised in the form of the Toolbook, which is specifically designed to be used as a self-explanatory guide, complete with tools to stimulate awareness-raising and to encourage reflection on available resources and current practices

Cooperative core competencies in tourism: Combining resource-based and relational approaches in destination governance

Community-based tourist destinations can be understood as networks of tourism service providers, which need to combine their resources and competencies to generate the overall holiday experience. Building on strategic management theories, the study aims at exploring the relationship between the destinations management’s reflexive capabilities and the cooperative core competencies of a tourist destination. By means of reflexive capabilities, destination management is suggested to be able to induce a high level of network quality, which in turn may be a pre-condition for the interlacing of the service providers’ competencies and resources, i.e. for the development of cooperative core competencies. Based on a quantitative survey in Bavaria, the results support these assumptions and indicate that reflexive capabilities may promote the development of cooperative core competencies in tourist destinations. The paper advances tourism literature by introducing, operationalizing and testing the idea of cooperative core competencies in the context of tourist destinations

Framework of Socialisation, Authentic Leadership and Affective Commitment for Construction Professionals

This paper highlights the human resources (HR) or behaviour-related success factors in construction projects, and these are training, understanding, co-worker support, future prospects, authentic leadership, and affective commitment. There exists discrepancies in existing literature regarding the factor structure of organisational socialisation and authentic leadership. Therefore, this study aims to explore the factor structure of socialisation, authentic leadership and affective commitment. Data was gathered from 301 newly joined construction professionals and  Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was conducted to examine the factor structure for organisational socialisation, authentic leadership and affective commitment. A measurement model was further developed using the domains of organisational socialisation, authentic leadership and affective commitment. The results of CFA revealed that there exists four zero-order factor structure for organisational socialisation, and one zero-order factor structure for authentic leadership. The study contributes to both the researcher and practitioner communities by integrating the three constructs and validating the factor structure in the new context (i.e. construction). Further, the study contributes towards improving HR processes, namely, training, reward system, and induction process. It also helps in augmenting the authenticity among the project participants

USING COMPETENCIES FOR SPECIFYING OUTCOME EXPECTATIONS FOR DEGREE PROGRAMS IN COMPUTING: LESSONS LEARNED FROM OTHER DISCIPLINES

This essay reviews the use of the competency concept in various educational and professional development contexts. Its key purpose is to identify the lessons that computing education and practice can learn from disciplines that have explored and evaluated the use of competency-based approaches much longer than computing. The review reveals a broad variety of definitions and uses of the competency concept in a number of fields but no single unifying success formula emerges. The key recommendations of the essay are as follows: the efforts in computing education that use a competency-based approach should 1) carefully consider ways to specify competencies in an integrated, holistic way instead as a simple combination of components (such as knowledge, skills, and attitude); 2) recognize the purpose and timeframe for which competencies are specified, specifically avoiding a sole focus on short-term professional competencies; and 3) explicitly and transparently communicate whether or not the intent of any effort that uses a competency-based approach is to transform the entire educational model (instead of simply using competencies for specifying outcome expectations)