Bringing the heart and soul back in: collaborative inquiry and the DBA

Waddock and Lozano (2013) propose that there is an urgent need to bring the 'heart and soul' back into management education. Indeed, its absence has also been implicated in the plethora of recent scandals and the global financial crisis. We suggest that, in part, such issues are attributable to a continued over reliance on a scientific and detached form of knowing which displaces particular 'human characteristics' and in so doing, downplays our inherent connections to others. In contrast, we identify the importance of embracing a supplementary form of knowing- collaborative inquiry which potentially restores our connections to others in ways which provide opportunities for a more heartfelt and soulful management practice. Specifically, we extend Van de Ven and Johnson’s (2006) notion of collaborative inquiry to consider how it is mobilized in the context of a UK DBA program and in turn examine the impact this move accomplishes. Drawing upon a detailed analysis of twenty students’ reflective journals, we illustrate the ways in which they develop a form of empathy. Crucially, we found that this was one important means for (re)-connecting to others and in ways which begin to bring in a sense of heart and soul back into management education

The relative contributions of different sulphur point sources to acidification on SSSIs in Britain

Acidification of the natural environment by anthropogenic sources of sulphur and nitrogen in many parts of Europe is well documented (Last & Watling 1991). In Britain at present point sources account for approximately 70% of the total load (RGAR 1990). Acidification leads to a number of adverse impacts on the nature conservation resources of Britain (Woodin & Farmer 1993, Farmer 1995) and it is important that emissions are reduced to a level which is sustainable (DoE 1994). There has, however, been little attempt to quantify the relative contribution of different sources of sulphur to impacts on nature conservation. Such information would be particularly important in formulating national pollution reduction strategies and inform individual regulatory decisions. This report presents results from one approach to this problem. The nature conservation impact is assessed by reference to Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs). However, it is important to note that whilst these statutorily designation sites do contain the most important habitats and species of nature conservation importance in Britain, important conservation resources also occur in other areas. The analysis is based on assessments using the critical loads approach. The impact is quantified by an examination of sulphur deposition which is greater than the critical load for soils on each SSSI. The critical loads approach (Bull 1991, CLAG 1994) has been used extensively to define thresholds for effects and is a central component of the UK government’s policy development for controlling acid emissions (DoE 1991, DoE 1994). In this study exceedence of a critical load leading to soil acidification on an SSSI is considered to constitute an adverse impact on that site

Consumers perception and evaluation of fresh cut buying attributes: a survey on the Italian market

During the last twenty years, consumer choice in high income countries is no longer merely dictated by price and the organoleptic characteristics of a product, but also by other features some of which are not patently tangible. The growing importance of such attributes in the process of consumer choice is not only due to income increase, but also to changes in lifestyle such as migrations from the countryside, a generalized urbanization and consequential city life style, female emancipation and work outside the domestic walls for women, the drastic decrease in hard physical labor and the process of internationalization. The present survey study aims to explore the importance that Italian consumers give to fresh cut buying attributes and which of these attributes should be taken into consideration by industries in order to satisfy the needs of the most critical shoppers. Where possible, market and survey data for fresh cut products will be compared with those for cooked products and before presenting the results and conclusions of the study, the technical issues of processing will be highlighted owing to the fact that they affect the marketing of these products, the recent market situation with regard to consumption will be illustrated and the methodology used will be described