The impact of the Europeanization process on state-industry interaction in Romania

This article argues that potential EU membership can function as a powerful impulse for the modernization of the economic, political and social systems of candidate countries. To illustrate this, evidence of the transformations of the Romanian state-societal interactions in the transition period are discussed, with special focus on privatization, enterprise restructuring and competition policy. The article also explains why the Europeanization process has so far worked more slowly and less effectively in Romania than in other Central and Eastern European countries. This analysis could be used as a learning experience for prospective EU members to adjust to the European environment.peer-reviewe

Ethical Issues in AI-Enabled Disease Surveillance: Perspectives from Global Health

Infectious diseases, as COVID-19 is proving, pose a global health threat in an interconnected world. In the last 20 years, resistant infectious diseases such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), H1N1 influenza (swine flu), Ebola virus, Zika virus, and now COVID-19 have been impacting global health defences, and aggressively flourishing with the rise of global travel, urbanization, climate change, and ecological degradation. In parallel, this extraordinary episode in global human health highlights the potential for artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled disease surveillance to collect and analyse vast amounts of unstructured and real-time data to inform epidemiological and public health emergency responses. The uses of AI in these dynamic environments are increasingly complex, challenging the potential for human autonomous decisions. In this context, our study of qualitative perspectives will consider a responsible AI framework to explore its potential application to disease surveillance in a global health context. Thus far, there is a gap in the literature in considering these multiple and interconnected levels of disease surveillance and emergency health management through the lens of a responsible AI framework

Examining the influence of servant and entrepreneurial leadership on the work outcomes of employees in social enterprises

The present study examines the relative influence of two distinct leadership styles, servant leadership and entrepreneurial leadership, on the organizational commitment and innovative behavior of employees working in social enterprises. Analyzing data from 169 employees and 42 social entrepreneurs, we found that, although servant leadership was positively related to followers’ organizational commitment, the relationship between entrepreneurial leadership and organizational commitment was insignificant. In contrast, whilst we found evidence that entrepreneurial leadership was positively related to followers’ innovative behavior, the relationship between servant leadership and employees’ innovative behavior was insignificant. Our research contributes to the underdeveloped literature on leadership in social enterprises by exploring the relative effectiveness of different leadership styles (namely an entrepreneurial leadership style and a servant leadership style) in promoting follower work attitudes and behaviors in social enterprises. In addition, our research demonstrates the importance of leadership over and above followers’ individual differences such as pro-social motivation and creative self-efficacy

Human and social progress: projects and perspectives

© 2004 Cristina Neesham.This study examines three important conceptions of social and human progress, evaluates them critically, and proposes an alternative conception of a rather different type. The first three conceptions are respectively found in, or at least based on, Condorcet’s theory of the historical progress of the sciences and the arts; Adam Smith’s conception of the progressive increase of national wealth; and Karl Marx’s ideal of the communist society. Despite their fundamental differences, these three theories have several common elements. Each one proposes a social project aimed at achieving an ideal society; each ultimately seeks the improvement of the human condition; each focuses however on social rather than human progress, so that its conception of the latter (and of humanness) must be constructed from a set of associated ideas about human nature, life, needs, worth, potential, or fulfilment, and about relations among these

The value of ethics education for parliamentarians

Scandals involving Members of Parliament (MPs) abusing their powers and privileges to obtain personal benefits at public expense, or more broadly engaging in acts deemed by the public to be immoral, have occupied prominent media space over the last two decades (Allen and Birch 2011; Kenny 2009; Thompson 2013; Williams 2010). The scandals are widespread and affect affluent countries (e.g. UK, Australia, Germany), developing countries (e.g. Thailand, Kenya, Uganda), experienced democracies (e.g. US, Canada) and younger democracies (e.g. Romania, Ukraine). No one country has been spared. This has led to a sharp decline in the public reputation of politicians (Fox 2012; Lewis 2002; Martin 2013). However, changes in the moral sensibilities of the community towards their elected representatives explain in part the media reporting of MP-related sleaze (Fielding 2014) just as much as actual changes in the behaviour of MPs. Other causes for this relate to changes in representation practices, the gradual erosion of the parliament's institutional autonomy (Allen 2011), and the strengthening of `monitory democracy' worldwide (Keane 2009). All of this should alert MPs to the more demanding need to act ethically and be seen to do so (Fournier 2009a). This means that MPs must have the willingness and ability to understand public moral sensibilities which cannot be taken for granted

Needs and organizations: The case for the philosophical turn

The concept of 'needs' is foundational to any philosophy of human nature, rationality and human action. Beyond philosophy, many other disciplines such as psychology, economics, sociology, political science, social policy, ecology and susrainability, have engaged in ample research programs to address needs. Organization research makes no exception: its long history of interest in needs requires a separate monograph. At work, just as anywhere else in life, needs are omnipresent —yet in theorizing about needs no task has been more difficult than defining them. To complicate things further, the term 'needs' carries a heavy common use baggage, which tends to cloud rather than assist our understanding. In everyday English, for instance, we use 'need' in ambiguous ways, in which the idea of lacking something necessary, useful or desirable combines with that of a motivating factor eliciting action to compensate for what is lacking. However, this amorphous list of vague (sometimes conflicting) interpretations does not capture the distinctive moral and political strength of claims associated with the concept of 'needs' as used in philosophy and most other fields of inquiry. Here, 'needs' claims catalyse efforts to create social institutions whose explicit raison d'etre is to satisfy them. Such institutions are symptoms of our higher regard for social orders in which human dignity, freedom and meaningful life are protected and nurtured. Based on this humanist agenda, it seems reasonable to expect that the study of organization should focus on the creation of more effective organizations, according to these criteria, as a matter of overriding concern. Yet, as suggested in this chapter. the history of 'needs' research in this field is 6r front consistent with a humanist agenda. Driven by a philosophically questionable connection with motivation, in organization research the concept of 'needs' has been vaguely and ambiguously employed to serve different (and sometimes conflicting) interests. In the competition for legitimacy between the needs of employees and the 'needs' of the organization, instrumental managerialism, marking the priority of the latter over the former, has triumphed. By encouraging a thorough exploration of the nature of needs, of their social construction and its ideological effects, philosophy can restore a primary interest in the potential of organizations to meet human needs. This chapter begins by presenting a selection of key philosophical perspectives on needs, and then identifies some entrenched assumptions in the study of needs in organizations which, I argue, should be challenged. I then suggest some ways in which philosophy can be applied within organization research to unsettle these assumptions and forge new directions of thinking on this topic. Comments on further readings are also included

The good society: lessons for integrated governance

Abstract not available

The role of job embeddedness in entrepreneurial staying: contextual influences

In this study we highlight the importance of job embeddedness theory as a framework for understanding the phenomenon of entrepreneurial staying as opposed to entrepreneurial exit, and develop a number of testable propositions concerning the role of embeddedness in the entrepreneurial process. Specifically, job embeddedness theory reframes our understanding of the psychosocial process underlying the decision of the entrepreneur to stay by including attachment-related influences, such as organization and community-related fit, links and sacrifices. We argue that the relative importance of different embedding forces will vary with the nature of the contextual influences experienced by the entrepreneur. Such contextual influences may take the form of individual, organizational or societal factors

Moral identity as leverage point in teaching business ethics

This paper examines whether appealing to learners' moral identity makes a significant contribution to improving their ethical decision making beyond traditional, rule-based teaching. In response to criticisms leveled at rule-based ethics teaching by alternative approaches, we identify moral identity theory and experiments in moral psychology as useful sources to draw on for the creation of a new, identity-based ethics teaching approach. We develop and apply a set of regular self-reflection focused writing tasks added to the traditional teaching program over a one-semester period, and assess the outcomes of an overall sample of 149 postgraduate business school students, who were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: exposure to both identity-based tasks and rule-based teaching, exposure to rule-based teaching only, and the control condition (i.e., no exposure to ethics teaching). Our findings show that, while the three groups reported the same level of ethical decision making at the beginning of the semester, at the end of the semester the students who were exposed to both identity-based and rule-based teaching reported higher level of ethical decision making compared to those who were only exposed to rule-based education. In addition, the students who received rule-based teaching reported higher ethical decision making compared to those in the control condition. These results suggest that a teaching approach which appeals to the learner's moral identity can act as an effective leverage point when complementing rule-based teaching. This simple approach should be widely adopted as common practice in graduate business schools