More success than meets the eye: a challenge to critiques of the MBA. Possibilities for critical management education?

Management education generally, and MBA programmes in particular, have been persistently criticized for failing to speak adequately to management practice. One response to such criticisms has been to suggest a wider consideration of critical management education (CME). Drawing on research findings from an empirical study of MBA learning, the article argues that MBA learning can be seen as more valuable to the manager in practice than critics contend. Moreover, the learning which is valued resonates with both a critical understanding of management and critical accounts of the role of management education, suggesting that a covert form of CME may already be operating. We argue that further building on this understanding provides the potential for a more prominent CME. Specifically, we propose that the experience brought to and lived within the MBA programme provides an opportunity for `problematizing' accepted ways of making sense of the world

Exploring MBA career success

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the meaning of career success in relation to the attainment of an MBA degree, for a group of experienced managers. In so doing, the paper aims to consider the adequacy of MBA career success, defined solely in terms of external criteria. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 36 in-depth interviews were undertaken with MBA alumni which sought to capture the individual's own account of their career success in relation to their MBA. The study utilised an inductive data analysis approach. Findings – The findings revealed a diversity of meanings given to MBA career success, with success generally being expressed in much broader terms than conventional notions of fast track career advancement. The salience of internal criteria for judging MBA career success is thus highlighted. The findings may be seen to further dispel the myth that MBA students are concerned exclusively with status and salary. Research limitations/implications – The study focuses on the experiences of graduates from only one MBA programme. Additionally, the study reports retrospective accounts of MBA career success, a longitudinal design would be advantageous. Practical implications – The demonstration of a plurality of career success provides potential advantage for business schools recruiting MBA students. Organisations can benefit from a wider understanding of MBA career success. Originality/value – The findings suggest that the value of the MBA encompasses more than fast track career success

Sensitive detection of methane at 3.3 μm using an integrating sphere and interband cascade laser

Detection of methane at 3.3μm using a DFB Interband Cascade Laser and gold coated integrating sphere is performed. A 10cm diameter sphere with effective path length of 54.5cm was adapted for use as a gas cell. A comparison between this system and one using a 25cm path length single-pass gas cell is made using direct TDLS and methane concentrations between 0 and 1000 ppm. Initial investigations suggest a limit of detection of 1.0ppm for the integrating sphere and 2.2ppm for the single pass gas cell. The system has potential applications in challenging or industrial environments subject to high levels of vibration

How often does the Unruh-DeWitt detector click beyond four dimensions?

We analyse the response of an arbitrarily-accelerated Unruh-DeWitt detector coupled to a massless scalar field in Minkowski spacetimes of dimensions up to six, working within first-order perturbation theory and assuming a smooth switch-on and switch-off. We express the total transition probability as a manifestly finite and regulator-free integral formula. In the sharp switching limit, the transition probability diverges in dimensions greater than three but the transition rate remains finite up to dimension five. In dimension six, the transition rate remains finite in the sharp switching limit for trajectories of constant scalar proper acceleration, including all stationary trajectories, but it diverges for generic trajectories. The divergence of the transition rate in six dimensions suggests that global embedding spacetime (GEMS) methods for investigating detector response in curved spacetime may have limited validity for generic trajectories when the embedding spacetime has dimension higher than five.Comment: 30 pages. v3: presentational improvement. Published versio

The Illawarra at Work: A Summary of the Major Findings of the Illawarra Regional Workplace Industrial Relations Survey

This paper summarises the main results of the Illawarra Regional Workplace Industrial Relations Survey (IRWIRS). The data is unique in that it provides the only comprehensive and statistically reliable source of information about workplace employee relations at the regional level in Australia, and compares regional patterns with national trends. The data collected relates to industrial relations indicators, workplace ownership, market conditions, management organisation and decision- making in the workplace, among other things. The results reveal a positive pattern of employment relations in the Illawarra, distinctive in many respects from national trends.Illawarra Regional Workplace Industrial Relations Survey, workplace employee relations, Australia

A study of the miscibility of acrylic-based polymer blends

The work carried out in this study constitutes an investigation of the miscibility behaviour of a number of acrylic-based polymers with the high performance, fluoropolymer surface coating material Luniflon LF200. The aim was to find ways of improving the miscibility of LF200 with lower cost acrylic type surface coating materials. In order to more fully understand the mixing behaviour of LF200, blends were prepared with acrylic copolymers and a number of other polymeric materials. LF200 was found to be immiscible with a copolymer based on styrene (ST) and methacrylic acid (MAA), irrespective of the ST:MAA ratio. Miscible blends of LF200 were however, prepared with n-butyl acrylate (PBA) and polyethylene glycol (PEG) homopolymers, among others. [Continues.

Alien Registration- Hodgkinson, Freda M. (South Berwick, York County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/6393/thumbnail.jp