Explanatory investigation of the moderating role of employee proactivity on the causal relationship between innovation‐based human resource management and employee satisfaction

In this paper, combinations of structural equation modeling and moderated‐hierarchical regression were used to examine the causal influence of organization‐driven innovation‐based human resource management on employee satisfaction among passenger‐contact employees in Nigeria. Further, we investigated the role that employee's proactivity plays in the aforementioned causal relationship. Specifically, our result implied that with higher levels of proactivity, passenger‐contact employees benefited more from the positive contribution of innovative human resource management than when proactivity is low. Theoretical and practical implications are suggested.     

American culpability: the Bush Administration and the Iranian nuclear impasse

Drawing on the memoirs of Hassan Rowhani, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator (2003–2005) and newly elected president, this paper considers the impact of the Bush Administration's Iran policy on the internal politics of the Islamic Republic and the dynamics of its nuclear negotiation strategy. It argues that the administration had a detrimental effect on international nuclear negotiations with Iran and should be considered at least partially responsible for the current nuclear impasse. Identifying three key areas, it focuses on the administration's rejection of constructive engagement with the relatively moderate government of President Mohammad Khatami; the negative influence of the USA during Iran's nuclear negotiations with the EU3; and the administration's refusal to provide the Iranians with confidence-building incentives, or countenance unconditional nuclear talks, despite a policy change in Washington that was ostensibly multilateralist and gave the impression of directly engaging with the Iranians.     

Reforming Sticky Institutions: Persistence and Change in Turkish Agriculture

The recent revival of interest in institutions in development studies favors the analysis of macroinstitutions and questions of institutional origination and change. But a strong emphasis on mid-range, sectoral arrangements, and a refined notion of continuity, can also improve our understanding of institutions in late developers—one by facilitating a thick view of institutions while offering a sharp perspective on the current institutional reform agenda, and the other by casting new light on instances of irregular change and failed or partial reform. The trajectory of Turkey’s agricultural support regime is used as a case to substantiate this argument. Building on an analytic distinction between resilience and persistence, the article explains the dynamic continuity of populist-corporatist forms of market governance in Turkish agriculture, despite the neoliberalism of the 1980s and 1990s and radical institutional reform efforts of the 2000s.

Are devaluations contractionary in emerging economies of Eastern Europe?

In most developing countries currency depreciation is said to be contractionary. This is because depreciation reduces the aggregate supply more than it increases the aggregate demand. However, emerging European economies have received no attention so far, mostly due to unavailability of data. Now that enough time-series data are available, we try to fill the gap by investigating the impact of real depreciation in effective exchange rates of Belarus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, and Slovak Republic on their domestic output. We find that in the short run real depreciation is expansionary in Belarus, Latvia, Poland, and Slovak Republic; contractionary in Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, and Russia; and has no effect in Lithuania. In almost none of the countries, the short-run effects last into the long run.

The Kurds in Iraq

The following briefs are edited versions of papers presented at the annual meeting of the Middle East Studies Association in Anchorage, Alaska, November 8, 2003. The editors were Hakan Yavuz and Michael Gunter, whose papers are included below. Why Kurdish Statehood is Unlikely , Michael M. Gunter, professor of political science, Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville, Tennessee Transnational Networks: New Opportunities and Constraints for Kurdish Statehood , Denise Natali, visiting research fellow, Washington Kurdish Institute (WKI); director of WKI's transnational project Turkey and Kurdistan‐Iraq, 2003 , Robert Olson, professor of Middle East and Islamic history, University of Kentucky Could a Kurdish State Be Set Up in Iraq? , Nihat Ali Özcan, author of PKK (Kurdistan ýpçi Partisi) Tarihi, Ideolojisi ve Yönetimi (Ankara: Asam, 1999) Kurdish Reality in an Emerging Iraq , Khaled Salih, University of Southern Denmark Provincial Not Ethnic Federalism in Iraq , M. Hakan Yavuz, associate professor of political science, University of Utah     

Interpretation and mutability: socio-legal texts of the Quran; three accounts from contemporary Iran

Since the advent of the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979, radical changes have taken place in the views of many Iranian scholars regarding the nature of religious belief. In particular, the issue of the compatibility or incompatibility of Islam's socio-legal precepts and the challenges of time and space have become a crucial matter for numerous Iranian intellectuals. This paper discusses how three prominent Iranian intellectuals of the post-revolutionary era, namely Mostafa Malekian, Mohsen Kadivar and Hasan Yousefi-Eshkevari, have put forward arguments in favor of the contingent nature of the Quran's socio-legal passages. The paper argues that these scholars challenge the notion of the immutability of the Quran's socio-legal texts, claiming that they could be applied differently depending on the specific time and place. In this sense, the paper establishes the groundwork for showing how these scholars have re-examined traditional understandings of religion in light of the new challenges that are arising in the modern world.     

Third Party Funding in Arbitration: Questions and Justifications

Utility of third party funding is an undeniable fact, especially where a party is under financial strain, yet its increased usage in private arbitration has given rise to a number of substantive and procedural issues. In view of this, the present paper attempts to map the growing utility or otherwise of the mechanism of third party funding, and analyses its various nuances and legal sustainability within the framework of international arbitration. Further, an attempt is made to analyse the ways and means of ameliorating the utility of third party funding and for enhancing its acceptance in the global arbitration community.

     

The Theory of Retroactivism: Arab Resistance to Educational and Technological Progress

The article examines the reluctance of Arab culture to ‘Western’ ideas of education and technology. It, first, establishes a conceptual framework for those cultures dominated by ‘retroactivism’—a school of thought that advocates a return to traditions and argues against progressive innovation. The article then puts this framework into practice, addressing the research question: In what instances, if any, do retroactivists accept educational and technological progress? This question was answered by first examining the ways in which a retroactivistic culture approached educational and technological progress. This examination helped generate a timeline of attempts to introduce educational and technological innovations into Arab culture. This timeline shows that Arab culture resists innovation in all its various forms and therefore sustains a retroactivism-dominated way of life. Retroactivists believe in what ‘renewism’ or ‘revivalism’: referring to movements that emerge from time to time throughout history that issue appeals to adhere to old norms and values, using strategies to remind society of the need to return to past ideologies. This means that, although retroactivistic cultures might accept certain innovations, there can occasionally be ‘renewistic movements’ that seek to bring society back to old times, thereby seeking to (peacefully or violently) undermine or eliminate existing innovations.