Nicki-aesthetics: the camp performance of Nicki Minaj

In this essay, the author contends that Nicki Minaj practices what he terms nicki-aesthetics, a form of black performance art that employs an extravagant theatricality and a vivid, intensely hued style. Nicki-aesthetics shares qualities with the sensibility of camp, as outlined in Susan Sontag's 1964 article “Notes on ‘Camp,’” yet challenges camp's assumed association with white gay men as well as its reduction of women to objects (rather than subjects) within the camp universe. Nicki-aesthetics realigns blackness and camp as mutually constitutive (rather than oppositional) forms, while reconfiguring camp as a black female-centered practice. In addition, Nicki Minaj demonstrates her dexterity at performing nicki-aesthetics in an offbeat interview on Elle magazine's website while deploying avatars to play multiple roles. In doing so, nicki-aesthetics' quirky blend of artifice and alterity ultimately rebukes hip-hop's obsession with authenticity.     

Size Matters: Toward a Contingency Theory of Diversity Effects on Performance

Abstract

This study examines the diversity-performance link by focusing on two types of diversity—gender and functional—in the context of governing boards of 24 quasi-government agencies in Korea over 16?years (2000–2015). Although public management scholarship contains evidence regarding the importance of diversity in public organizations, there is little consensus on what constitutes diversity and how it affects public sector performance. This study expands the scope of dialogues by highlighting multidimensional characteristics of diversity and the contingent nature of diversity effects. Multiplicative interaction models confirm that there are distinctive effects of different types of diversity on performance, and the relationship is moderated by the size of the group to which minorities belong. While the effect of board gender diversity is limited in our data, the effect of having a female chief executive is positively significant with decreasing marginal effect as the number of board members increases. On the other hand, the relationship of functional diversity in the boardroom to agency performance is negative, while the negative marginal effect decreases and becomes positive when board size rises above a critical number.     

完整科学的非量化岗位绩效考核体系探析

管理学界有人把企业实施战略性绩效管理的好坏,作为企业优秀与平庸的分水岭。一套完善的激效考核体系的难点,在于对不能量化的岗位进行有效公平的考核。     

Organising for Effective Emergency Management: Lessons from Research1

The February 2009 bushfires have prompted a debate with regard to contemporary arrangements for dealing with large‐scale disasters. In this article, we seek to contribute to that debate by culling lessons learned from the literature on crisis and disaster management. We discuss what constitutes an effective disaster response system, we identify some key barriers to the effective functioning of such a system, and offer some suggestions for improvement.     

International Co‐Authorship and Research Team Performance in Colombia

This article examines the ways in which International Scientific Collaboration, as observed by the co‐authorship of journal articles written by local scientists and partners located overseas, affects the ability of research teams to produce bibliographic outputs and to contribute to local knowledge. A sample of 672 teams was randomly selected for the analyses. In addition, 20 interviews with experts and team members were administered to discuss models and results. Results show that co‐authoring with partners located overseas increases team output by nearly 40% and by between three and five bibliographic products. It also shows that a team's odds of involving Colombia in its research process are 2.2 times larger for those co‐authoring with a partner located overseas than for those that do not. Theoretical and policy implications are discussed.     

Influence of public administration and environmental management performance of cement manufacturing in Malaysia

Environmental issues have become critical concerns of businesses worldwide where environmental obligations have grown substantially and companies have to be environmentally responsible. Malaysia has enacted the Environmental Quality Act 1974 and subsidiary Environmental Quality （Clean Air） Regulations 1978, Environmental Quality （Sewage and Industrial Effluent） Regulations 1979, Environmental Quality （Prescribed Activities） Order 1987 and Environmental Quality （Scheduled Waste） Regulation 2005. ISO 14001 environmental management system （EMS） standard designed to introduce environmental improvement into every aspect of a company＇s operations. ISO 14001 assists companies in creation of structured mechanisms for continuous improvement in environmental performance. There is a complex and dynamic relation between profitability and environmental concerns. The paper evaluates how ISO 14001 aids cement companies in operating continuous environment protection programs to minimize significant environmental impacts. This study analyzes the relationship between adoption of ISO 14001 to business performance and competitive advantage of Malaysian companies that provides insights into motivations and results. ISO 14001 has a positive impact on companies＇ performance, specifically on perceived environmental impacts. The companies recognized the need for ISO 14001 as an internal tool to maintain operations and management competitiveness. To adopt the ISO 14001 environment elements, it is necessary to have corporate culture that support complex operational activities in line with the top management commitment of the ISO 14001 policy and regulatory-compliant. ISO 14001 implementation was crucial in bringing about reduction of damage to the environment at operational level, and effective environmental management at management level, as well as improvement of the company＇s image and competitiveness at strategic level. Companies that export their products are expected to implement the ISO 14001 in order to maintain their competitive edge in the global market place.     

Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Financial Performance:a Refined Framework from External Perspective

It is argued that one important reason for the inconsistent results about corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate financial performance (CFP) is the deficiency of traditional paradigm of constructing the definitions of CSR and CSiR in revealing the actual situation. Based on the insight of Herzberg's motivation hygiene theory, we believe that the opposite of CSR is not CSiR but no CSR; the opposite of CSiR is not CSR but no CSiR. Moreover, we point out that those past empirical studies ignoring the visibility of CSR activities may lead to wrong measurements of the CSR actions. Therefore, we define CSR as firms creating wealth for humanity with minimizing negative externality (no CSiR /CSR) and maximizing positive externality (doing CSR). And with reference to the visibility of CSR, we divide CSR into benchmark CSR, implicit CSR, explicit CSR, and comprehensive CSR. In addition, we build a contingent relationship between CSR and CFP from the external perspective.     

The abiding voter: The lengthy horizon of retrospective evaluations

Although the theory of retrospective voting receives wide support in the literature on voting behaviour, less agreement exists on voters’ time horizon when assessing the government's performance – that is, whether voters are myopic. Previous studies on voter myopia tend to focus on aggregate-level measures of the economy, or use an experimental approach. Using panel data, this article offers the first investigation into voter myopia that uses individual-level evaluations of government performance in a representative survey at several points during the electoral cycle. The study focuses on The Netherlands, but it also provide tests of the generalisability and robustness of the findings, and a replication in the American context. The results indicate that voter satisfaction early in the government's term adds to explaining incumbent voting. Thus, rather than the myopic voter, evidence is found of the abiding voter – steady at her or his post, evaluating government performance over a long length of time.     

Can Needs-Based Grants Improve Local Transit Performance? Varying Effects by Level of Control

Needs-based grant programs are budgeting systems that tie grant dollars to the needs of the grantees as determined by objective indicators. Although performance improvement is not an explicit goal of such grants, the associated awards could work as incentives for grantees to meet the grant criteria. In other words, grantees seek to improve their performance to fulfill the criteria, even though the grant-makers intend such grants to support the existing operational needs of the grantees. This study tests these assertions in the context of the small transit intensive cities (STIC) grant that was established as a needs-based grant system by the federal government to support small local transit agencies operating with unusually high service demands. This study argues that these systems would have a stronger impact on indicators over which grantees have more control. This study tests these assertions using a difference-in-differences analysis of 290 transit agencies over 17 years. The findings show that STIC is effective in improving grantee performance, at least on the indicators which are more amenable to control.     

高校青年教师科研绩效压力对过度劳动的影响 —— 职业紧张与焦虑的中介作用

通过对山东省487名高校青年教师进行抽样调查和实证分析,探讨科研绩效压力对过度劳动的作用机理和影响路径,并验证职业紧张和焦虑的中介作用对过度劳动产生的影响。研究结果表明,科研绩效压力与高校青年教师的职业紧张和焦虑都有着显著的正相关,对高校青年教师的过度劳动有显著的正向影响;通过中介效应检验,职业紧张和焦虑在科研绩效压力与过度劳动之间起部分中介作用。