Managing the reputation of restructuring corporations: send the right signal to the right stakeholder

When restructuring their operations, companies intend to minimise environmental uncertainty; however, corporate restructuring increases the unintended uncertainty for stakeholders, as constituents often lack the information or understanding on how ongoing reorganisations would affect them. This paper proposes to manage restructuring through reputations, ie send information signals to the constituents. This contribution analyses the problems of reputation, integrating knowledge on information efficiency and information problems, and proposes five tasks of reputation management of restructuring corporations: release more information, release consistent information, simplify information, reach your stakeholders and reach competitors' stakeholder(s). Copyright © 2004 Henry Stewart Publications     

文学话语与意义承诺

在现代语言学的意义上 ,作为人的言语行为的文学 ,其意义的生成和解释建立在写与读的话语对话基础上。在文学的话语对话中 ,言语行为还可能转化为意义解释基础上的言效行为。在社会文化分层的意义上 ,2 0世纪 80年代以来 ,文学中的所谓“主流”、“先锋”、“大众”三种文学样态即具有话语承诺的明显特征 ,并分别显示出替他人承诺、自我承诺和消费性承诺的基本形态。     

利益相关者理论的金融机构治理分析

公司治理是有关公司控制权的一系列正式和非正式的制度安排,涉及公司内部各利益主体和外部利益相关者的权力分配,单纯以公司内部讨论公司治理结构已不能完全解释公司治理的诸多问题,公司治理不仅限于通过股东会、董事会、监事会及管理层所构成的治理结构为基础的内部治理,而是公司内外所有利益相关者通过一系列内部机构和外部机制来实施的共同治理。     

Creating Stable Agreements in Marine Policy: Learning from the California South Coast Marine Life Protection Act Initiative

In this article, we examine the California South Coast Marine Life Protection Act Initiative stakeholder process, evaluate its shortcomings, and consider what could have been done differently. Our objective is to make recommendations to improve future multi‐stakeholder marine policy processes. In our view, while the South Coast stakeholder process had many positive outcomes, it failed to reach what we call here a “stable agreement.” Our analysis is based on two of the authors’ involvement (one as a facilitator and the other as a stakeholder representative) in the process and a post‐hoc survey of participants. We find that several ill‐advised process design and management choices significantly destabilized the negotiations, leading to an ultimately unstable agreement. We highlight four major problematic process design and management decisions, including the following: representation on the multi‐stakeholder group was imbalanced, the pre‐meeting caucuses were not paired with training in interest‐based negotiation, adequate incentives to negotiate toward a consensus agreement were not provided, and the use of straw voting at one point in the process was unclear and inconsistent. As a result of these and other process design and management flaws, many stakeholders believed that the process was biased and that their ends would be better achieved by anchoring negotiations and engaging in positional bargaining. Ultimately, this meant that near‐consensus on a single cross‐interest marine protected area proposal was not reached, the scientific guidelines put forth were not fully met, the process was not and is not viewed as fair by the stakeholders directly or indirectly involved, and the marine protected area regulations lack broad‐scale support. These pitfalls of the South Coast stakeholder process could have been avoided had the management and facilitation team consistently followed best practices in dispute resolution. We recommend that future marine planning processes learn from this example, particularly those occurring in highly complex, urban ocean environments.     

Design Thinking in Policymaking Processes: Opportunities and Challenges

Design thinking has the potential to improve problem definition and mechanism design in policymaking processes. By promoting greater understanding of how citizens experience government services, design thinking can support public managers who desire to enhance public value. In Australia, as elsewhere, design thinking currently remains separated from mainstream policymaking efforts. This article clarifies the essence of design thinking and its applicability to policy development. Five design thinking strategies are discussed, all of which have lengthy histories as social science methodologies. They are (1) environmental scanning, (2) participant observation, (3) open‐to‐learning conversations, (4) mapping, and (5) sensemaking. Recent examples from Australia and New Zealand are used to illustrate how these strategies have been incorporated into policymaking efforts. The article concludes by considering how design thinking might be more broadly applied in policymaking, and the training and resourcing requirements that would entail.     

国外非政府组织社会责任研究述评

随着非政府组织在数量、组织以及活动范围的不断扩大,其作用越来越大,已经成为权力结构的一部分,由此引发了关于其社会责任问题的研究。本文对国外非政府组织的角色和功能做了历史分析,对于其社会责任的争议做了评述：从非政府组织的社会责任概念、逻辑形式、类别、代表性问题、相关利益者责任、责任机制等方面进行了比较分析。     

Energy security in China–European Union relations: framing further efforts of collaboration

The aim of this article is to help frame the China–EU dialogue on energy security, formally established in 2012, yet in reality adding to decades of sustained dialogue and collaboration to address energy development and policy-making in China. The paper begins by noting that the lack of mutual energy dependence between the EU and China can place a limit to the attractiveness of the security dimension of energy as a topic for further dialogue. China's energy challenges require fast delivery of industry-level results, against ideational aspects associated with search for energy security on the global scale. Then, the article proceeds in four parts: (1) a review and analysis of European and Chinese energy security concepts; (2) an explanation of the rationale for EU–China energy security cooperation and policy coordination; (3) an overview of the past and current undertakings in the energy field between China and the EU; and (4) a set of ideas to consider in making this new layer of formal dialogue effectual.     

The effect of stakeholder culture on managers’ perceptions of stakeholder attributes in Australian not-for-profit organizations

We examine the relation between stakeholder culture and managers’ perceptions of stakeholder attributes of power, legitimacy, and urgency in Australian not-for-profit (NFP) organizations. Examination of this relation is important because managers’ perceptions of stakeholder attributes determine how stakeholder relationships are managed, which affects (positively or negatively) the ability of NFP organizations to fulfil their social mission. Data were collected through a survey of top managers of 478 NFP organizations. Our results show that the stakeholder cultures of altruist and instrumentalist, manifesting different moral values, differentially affect NFP managers’ perceptions of the three stakeholder attributes for clients and government. Specifically, an altruist stakeholder culture affects managers’ perception of client legitimacy, while an instrumentalist culture affects managers’ perception of government power. We also investigate the mediating effects of power and legitimacy on the relation between stakeholder cultures and urgency. We find that managers’ perceptions of power and legitimacy act as crucial cues for managers to perceive stakeholder urgency. Our study contributes to the stakeholder management literature and has important implications for managers of NFP organizations in managing stakeholder relationships in the contemporary environment.     

Technocracy,the market and the governance of England's National Health Service

England's National Health Service, the fifth largest employer in the world, has become heavily influenced by expert authority and the market economy, which has had implications for accountability and the receptiveness of health decisions to stakeholder needs. One response has been the introduction of a range of regulatory provisions designed to facilitate effective governance and stakeholder engagement. These provisions are scrutinized using three conceptual devices: core accountability, social reporting and social learning. These devices have significant implications, as they enable technical experts to form closed communities, communicate among themselves mainly about economic and financial matters, and make decisions that aid the market without meaningful recourse to citizens. While technical experts are necessary to help manage complex areas, current arrangements reinforce an existing gap between economic and democratic values through hardened technocratic approaches to health care governance.     

沟通与和谐——从沟通理性视角探索和谐社会构建新路径

沟通理性蕴涵了丰富的社会和谐思想,这有助于我们审视和反思西方现代化过程所带来的人文精神失落、生活世界萎缩的消极后果和负面效应,深化中国当前问题的思考,以一种跨文化的视野去探索社会主义和谐社会构建新思路.搭建利益诉求平台、实现社会平等对话;建立官民互动机制、开辟谈判协商渠道,培育民间力量、发挥公共领域中介功能,使沟通化解冲突.确立社会主义普遍规范与价值体系,注重法律功能,通过共识实现和谐.