Culture and efficacy of performance management: a qualitative study in Thailand

Globalisation has led an increasing adoption of Western modelled Performance Management (PM) systems in non-Western countries, particularly Asia. The aim of the research is to explore the effects of Thai culture on the efficacy of Western modelled performance management (PM) in a cross-cultural setting. Thailand is becoming increasingly important to Australian businesses, particularly in view of the ASEAN Economic Community Plan, which is now in its final stages implementation. The primary data for this study was sourced from 43 semi-structured and in-depth interviews with 30 participants. The participants occupied managerial positions ranging from CEO executives to middle management, with organisations operating in Thailand. The interviews were conducted with both expatriate and local Thai employees. Social constructivism, qualitative methodology, and inductive reasoning were applied to the collection, analysis and interpretation of the data. The findings show only a tenuous link between Western values, upon which PM systems are predicated, and motivational values of the host society. As a consequence, Western PM practice can fail to adequately compensate for differing cultural concepts of the means-action-ends relationship that constitutes efficacy, which, in turn, affects the efficacy of PM outcomes. This research has implications for future cross-cultural management studies by expanding the perspectives of inquiry through cultural constructs of efficacy. It also has implications for PM design, and employee cultural awareness training and development. This will assist expatriate and host country management, to compromise cultural values differences. In doing so, closer alignment of expectations may be achieved, within the organisation-manager-subordinate relationships, to deliver efficacious PM outcomes

Possible Detection of Low Energy Solar Neutrons Using Boron Based Materials

Solar neutrons have been detected aboard the International Space Station (ISS), using lithium tetraborate and boron carbide detector elements. We find that evidence of a solar neutron flux, as detected in a neutron calorimeter following subtraction of the proton background, with an energy of about 2 to 4 MeV. This solar neutron flux is likely no more than 250 to 375 neutrons cm−2sec−1, with a lower bound of 50–75 neutrons cm−2sec−1 at one au

Risultati preliminari delle indagini archeologiche ed etnografiche presso il sito di Togolok 1

Modern Turkmenistan is mainly constituted by a desert landscape, yet despite its harsh climate, cultures have been able to construct networks of water channels since the Bronze Age. This has resulted in a man-made landscape that integrates towns and villages. Extensive surveys and recent archaeological excavations have highlighted that between 2400 and 2100 BC (Namazga V period), the region of the Murghab alluvial fan was characterised by the development of complex urban societies. However, starting from the Late Bronze Age, a new group of mobile pastoralists appeared in the Murghab region and settled along the edges of the sedentary sites. Although their presence is well-attested both by survey and excavation data, their degree of interaction with the sedentary farmers is still debated. In modern Turkmenistan, semi-mobile shepherds continue to drive their cattle across the Murghab, using mobile camps for different months. This paper presents the preliminary results of the excavation of the sedentary site of Togolok 1, as well as the first ethnographic study of the mobile communities of the Murghab region

The multi-period settlement Dali in southeastern Kazakhstan: Bronze Age institutional dynamics along the Inner Asian Mountain Corridor

Archaeological excavations at the Dali site complex located in southeastern Kazakhstan provide a rich picture of Bronze Age life spanning from the early third to late second millennia b.c. Nearly ten years of research at the site have produced an abundant assemblage of architectural remains, ritual and burial contexts, human and animal ancient DNA, and evidence for related economic practices and other material forms (ceramics, metallurgy). A systematic radiocarbon dating program provides detailed chronological context for the numerous stratigraphically documented phases of occupation, burial, and economy at the site. The settlement contexts at Dali provide some of the most varied and well-dated material assemblages known in the region and help illustrate how local pastoralist societies developed traditions of architecture, ceramic production, herd management, and ritual in the Early Bronze Age, while innovating and incorporating novel craft techniques, economic strategies, burial styles, and settlement construction in the Middle and Late Bronze Age. Taken together, the archaeological data from Dali allow for a detailed reconstruction of the local practices and regional interactions that engaged agro-pastoralist communities within diverse, shared institutional domains across the Inner Asian Mountain Corridor and beyond over a span of more than 2000 years