Suchergebnisse

Cover -- Copyright and Use -- Title Page -- Contents -- A Note on the Author -- Acknowledgements -- Chapter 1. Introducing the Issues -- 1.1 Some Everyday Moral Utterances -- 1.2 What are they about? -- 1.3 The Attractions of a Popular Picture -- 1.4 Rules: A Patch on Morality's Surface? -- 1.5 From Angry Young Men and Women to …? -- 1.6 Metaethics and Normative Ethics Revisited -- 1.7 Summary and Reflection -- Chapter 2. Cognitivism and Noncognitivism -- 2.1 The Basic Distinction -- 2.2 Moral Realism and Moral Irrealism -- 2.3 Error and Success Theories -- 2.4 Moral Knowledge Again -- 2.5 The Truth Conditions of Moral Statements -- 2.6 Critical Reflections on the Proposed Truth Conditions of Moral Statements -- 2.7 Divine Command Theory of Morality -- 2.8 Kantianism -- Chapter 3. Objectivist Realism under Siege -- 3.1 A Philosophical Health Warning -- 3.2 David Hume -- 3.3 Hume's Arguments Considered -- 3.4 Mackie's Argument from Queerness -- 3.5 So Where are We? -- 3.6 Emotivism -- Chapter 4. Out on the Street -- 4.1 The Death of God -- 4.2 The Death of Deference -- 4.3 Moral Disagreement -- 4.4 Multiculturalism -- 4.5 Rejection of Specific Moral Beliefs -- 4.6 Seedy Underbelly of Conventional Morality -- 4.7 Decline in Communal and Symbolic Life -- 4.7 Reluctance to be Judgemental -- 4.8 Postmodern Irony -- Chapter 5 A Naturalist Objectivist Realism? -- 5.1 The Basic Features -- 5.2 Moore's Open Question Argument -- 5.3 Empirical Reasoning and Moral Facts -- 5.4 Morality and Objectivist Naturalism -- 5.5 Ethics and Natural Disciplines -- Bibliography.

This thesis sets out to examine how the role and impact of technology, in the context of the public procurement process, can be assessed by addressing it as a single bounded structural entity. The thesis specifically examines the procurement process in the Irish Health Sector. This thesis takes the view that context for the procurement process is critical and that adopting a structuration approach to the examination of the process allows for a greater understanding of the role of technology. The thesis is built around a thematic structure which examines the changing relationship between information technology systems and organisational structure. In particular the thesis focuses in on the interaction of technology and people in the context of a process. The methodological approach is the development of case studies. Three case studies are examined in particular, the first two taking the traditional approach of examining technology impact on an organisation. The third case examines the impact on the procurement process itself. Findings illustrate that this approach is useful in identifying clusters of technology, which are generally seen in isolation in the traditional approach. A key finding is that the development of technology and its role and impact is influenced at a number of levels, from European Union to Organisational. The use of Structuration as a basis for understanding the contextual settings, allows for the examination of the procurement process as single bounded structural entity, which is created by the social actors, the participants in the process. The combination of the Structuration approach and the conceptual model realises a way of examining processes that are not organisationally bound. This advances the development of the technology research discipline. The cases contribute to the empirical knowledge base by recounting sectoral changes that occurred in the Irish Health Sector during the research. The framework contributes to the theoretical knowledge by providing a novel and innovative approach to assessing the role and impact of technology on a process.

This article evaluates the factors that shaped the effectiveness of three strategic contracts pursued with private firms by a local authority in the English West Midlands. The contracts generated highly political outputs that supported the council's defence of the core interests of local residents. The analysis explores the form taken by the contracts; the mechanisms that delivered and integrated them; and the wider structural factors that helped to secure apparently benign contractual outputs. The evaluative yardsticks used to support the analysis were: relationality; flexibility; and performativity.The article argues that relationality is crucial in determining quality in temporary, project‐based organizations. Relationality yields flexibility and effective performance, based on mutual regard and loyalty. The case study highlights the need to explore perceptual gaps between the parties; the importance of the time‐path of relationality; the significance of 'value residuals' in incentivizing substantive loyalty; and the potential contribution of zones of flexibility to performance.

PurposeThe purpose of the research was to discover to what extent franchisees supported the direction the company was taking as determined by the board of directors. Specifically, franchisees were invited to comment on corporate policies, initiatives and values that they were expected to implement and embody in their daily business practices.Design/methodology/approachThis article presents the findings from an international study conducted on the world's largest retail bakery franchisor which operates some 670 bakeries (January 2004) throughout Australia and New Zealand.FindingsIn many key areas of company policy and values, a considerable proportion of franchisees appeared to be strongly opposed to, or ignorant of, what the corporate body was promoting as business strategy. With respect to environmental initiatives, many franchisees are not supporting corporate policy to a very significant degree and some major initiatives seem destined to fail unless effective intervention is enacted. A proportion of franchisees are not implementing many core policies designed to promote good employee relations and develop staff potential. There were also some concerns regarding franchisee attitudes towards community involvement.Originality/valueOutlined here are the distinct characteristics of franchise organizations that can combine to frustrate corporate governance. The survey findings as they relate to the company's policy initiatives and organizational values are discussed, along with recommendations for developing more effective franchisor‐franchisee relationships.

This article builds on an earlier experiment in applying Realist Evaluation (RE) techniques to a set of Best Value Reviews (BVRs) undertaken in a single English local authority. That experiment used a range of assumptions regarding context (C), mechanisms (M) and outcomes (O) that restricted the possible pathways in the resulting CMO causal loop. They were 'heroic' in nature and left largely implicit. The article subjects those assumptions to rigorous criticism. Five hypotheses are tested concerning the nature of the context within which the BVRs occurred; the potentially skewed nature of the review mechanisms chosen; the impact of process outcomes and goals-setting problems on BVR outcomes; the scope for strong linkages to be formed between context, mechanism and outcomes, such that deterministic effects ensue; and the need to define the boundaries of the evaluand (the BVR). Realist evaluations have typically focused on individual services or programmes. It is contended that RE methods need to be adapted to address cumulative impacts on policy and organizational culture that are inherently political in nature.