Suchergebnisse

New policy mandated by the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics has lowered the dollar thresholds of contracts requiring earned value management (EVM). This policy directed that a "risk-based decision" be made to determine if EVM should be used on firm-fixed price contracts under $20 million. Although not previously applicable to Military Construction (MILCON) building projects or other Air Force Civil Engineer (CE) managed contracts, the new threshold requires that CE projects be evaluated for risk. Therefore, the focus of this research was to analyze the risk factors associated with construction contracts in an attempt to build a decision model to determine if EVM is warranted on the project. Due to the cost of implementing EVM, this model should probably be used only on Air Force construction projects with cost estimates over $5 million. If the cost growth predicted by the model is greater than 5%, the use of EVM is recommended to monitor the risk factors. However, this recommendation should be tempered with the overall risk associated with a given project. In other words, if the calculated cost growth is high but the probability of occurrence is low, the decision-maker may want to forego the use of EVM and the associated costs. The questions addressed by this research are as follows: (1) What risk factors affect the cost or schedule of Air Force construction projects?; (2) What is the probability of occurrence of the identified risk factors?; (3) What is the subsequent cost growth due to the occurrence of the risk factors?; and (4) How many Air Force construction projects accomplished in the last 5 years and those programmed through FY12 exceed the $20M threshold or fall into a range that must be evaluated?

In debates of climate action, low carbon development has been widely advocated as an opportunity arising from climate change. This paper problematizes low carbon development, arguing that there are undesirable, unintended or perverse effects that give rise to distinct and serious security concerns. The literature on climate security has addressed the effects of climate threats on conflict but there is a notable paucity of research analysing the security implications of responses to climate change in the form of low carbon development. The paper presents critical analysis of the ways low carbon development yields new security concerns as well as entrenching existing ones. Five dimensions of security are examined: spatially uneven effects of low carbon development; violent imaginaries of the global south and the production of 'ungoverned spaces'; non-violent yet harmful instances of conflict; marginalization and dispossession; depoliticized, techno-managerial effects of resilience. The paper shows that climate (in)security manifests in variegated ways between different populations and spatial scales. Consequently, how, when for whom low carbon development becomes a threat or opportunity is socially constructed and deeply political.

Since theadvent of the 21st century and especially since the food andfinancial crisis in 2008, concerns about natural resource availability haveresurfaced. While scarcity concerns date back hundreds of years and arefoundational to economics, how scarcity is interpreted or framed has evolved significantlyin the last two centuries. In this chapter, we recount the evolving scarcity discourseand specifically address the most recent iteration that centres on the idea ofa resource nexus. While significant attention to the nexus has been paid bypolicy-makers and scholars interested in especially water, management scholarshave so far remained absent from these debates. Given recent calls to address grand challenges in management and morespecific calls for work on scarce natural resources, both this book and thischapter are timely endeavors (George et al., 2015). The munificence ofthe natural environment is an important issue for the well-being of mankind ingeneral which affects the organization of the (post-) industrial economy.Various trends are suggestive of mounting resource needs that somehow need be met.Global population growth in combination with millions of people beinglifted out of poverty following industrialization has increased pressure onnatural ecosystems as demand for energy and water-intense food crops climbs. Inconjunction with this trend, urbanization and violent conflict are driving massmigrations that challenge both natural systems and political institutions.While the human and social toll of violent conflict is evident, it isnonetheless important to recognize that for every person dying in armedconflict, about a 1,000 people die due to lack of access to clean water or as aconsequence of household air pollution.The decreasing ability of natural environments to function amidst on-going,unabated human interference is a contemporary, urgent problem. This reducedabsorption capacity is a form of resource scarcity where we still lackimportant scientific understanding. As a consequence, governments have investedin security measures and hedges to scarcity, especially when it comes to foodand energy independence, resulting in the phenomenon of land grabs as a form offoreign direct investments made by governments and sovereign wealth funds (ADB, 2013; Andrews-Speed et al., 2012; Lee et al.,2012; Xynteo, 2012). Thecombination of these and other trends poses serious challenges fororganizations that are directly or indirectly dependent on natural environments'functioning. While challenges might be more pronounced for those organizationsin the extractive industries, all organizations ought to ensure that theiremployees and community stakeholders can sustain themselves withoutexperiencing undue harm caused by the organization's operations. In whatfollows, we first provide a short overview of the evolving scarcity framingsculminating in the current nexus approach (Allouche et al.,2015; Andrews-Speed et al., 2012; Foran, 2015; Hoff, 2011). Our review of the literature allows us topresent a framework of a multi-dimensional nexus in which source and sinkresources and the natural dynamics underlying them interact withtechno-economical, socio-political, and market processes. We then propound amanagerial approach that revolves around dynamism, munificence, and complexitywhich are central constructs in organizational theory (Anderson andTushman, 2001). Building on theoretical insights gatheredfrom prior research on organizational ecology and resource dependence theory (Hannan and Freeman,1977; Pfeffer and Salancik, 1978) as well as on current actions of companiesto deal with nexus problems, we propose complementary strategies that can beused as nexus management strategies in a hyper-connected world.

There is a significant 'action gap' between what scientists argue is necessary to prevent potentially dangerous climate change and what the government, industry and public are doing. This paper argues that a coherent strategic narrative is key to making meaningful progress. It does this by first analysing a number of narratives which have been used to try and create audience buy-in on the need for action on climate change, and those that argue that no action needs to be taken. A framework is then proposed for how compelling and unifying strategic narratives on climate change might be constructed. It is suggested that the unifying strategic narrative could address the complex range of actors who need to be engaged, provide a coherent explanation for government strategy, and harness the drivers of behavioural change needed to meet the challenge. Research into climate change strategic narratives is nascent, but the authors believe that there is much to be gained from pursuing and intensifying this research.

This article critically compares China's rare earth policy with perspectives upheld in the rest of the world (ROW). We introduce rare earth elements and their importance for energy and present how China and the ROW are framing the policy debate. We find strongly dissonant views with regards to motives for foreign direct investment, China's two-tiered pricing structure and its questionable innovation potential. Using the metaphor of "China Inc.", we compare the Chinese government to a socially responsible corporation that aims to balance the needs of its internal stakeholders with the demands from a resource-dependent world. We find that China's internal stakeholders have more power and legitimacy in the REE debate than the ROW and reconceptualise various possible mitigation strategies that could change current international policy and market dynamics. As such, we aim to reframe the perspectives that seem to govern the West and argue in favor of policy formation that explicitly acknowledges China's triple bottom line ambitions and encourages the ROW to engage with China in a more nuanced manner.