Winning the Battle of Ideas: Propaganda,Ideology, and Terror

Propaganda is at the heart of the struggle between Al Qaeda's strain of militant Islamism and the governments of the United States and United Kingdom. In an ideological struggle, propaganda is critical in shaping outcomes. Both Al Qaeda and the U.S. and U.K. governments recognize this, and have devised propaganda strategies to construct and disseminate messages for key audiences. This article considers the key elements in the Al Qaeda propaganda narrative, and the means through which it is disseminated. On the other side, it assesses the U.S. and U.K. governments’ response, focusing particularly on the British effort to define and propagate a narrative centered on British values.     

Chinese foreign policy and American social science

Abstract

Karl Marx and Mao Tse-tung, C. Wright Mills, Barrington Moore, Jr. and Fei Hsiao-t'ung also described themselves as social scientists. Thus when Boardman contrasts radical scholarship with authentic social science he is merely using a debater's tactic, using a label to place his adversaries at a rhetorical disadvantage, trying to monopolize the term science for only his outlook on events.     

Motivating the uninvolved worker: some conceptual and empirical observations

This paper focuses on the issue of whether less involved workers are affected by conventional management practices such as group involvement, merit pay, and participative management. The findings suggest that while these management practices have some influence on the performance of uninvolved employees, that uninvolved employees are behaviorally distinct from more actively involved workers. As a consequence, it may be prudent for managers in the public sector to develop management practices and approaches specifically designed to stimulate low involvement employees.     

Accounting for human resource development in the public sector

This article evaluates the merits of utilizing human resource accounting (HRA) concepts to account for human resource development (HRD) in the public sector. It describes the development of the economic theory of human capital and the increasing recognition of human resources as human assets of public organizations to be managed and accounted for in a manner similar to capital assets. The development of HRA concepts concerning human resource value and cost is discussed. These HRA concepts are applied to HRD and to current and potential uses in external financial reporting and internal managerial accounting in public organizations. This article concludes that the application of HRA concepts to HRD would have significant benefit for the operational and strategic management of human resources in public organizations. Using HRA information in internal managerial decision making would demonstrate the value gained in excess of costs incurred for such activities. The application of HRA concepts in pubic organizations, whether to internal managerial accounting and decision making or to public sector financial reporting, would heighten the priority of HRD activities by recognizing them as asset building rather than as an expense.     

Theory building: issues and an agenda

There is a growing recognition of the need to change the way research is conducted in management. In addition, there is an increasing belief that the philosophy of science can be applied to the research methods and standards normally employed in the study of organizations. Several recent contributions to the literature of management have indicated what must be done. Yet in many key respects, little progress has been made. This paper (1) considers the current status of theory development in management, (2) examines the approach offered by the natural sciences, (3) discusses the obstacles to implementation of the pure sciences approach, and (4) suggests what can be done to enhance the exposition and construction of theories.