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Moving from ‘Managing Stakeholders’ to ‘Managing for Stakeholders’: The Imperative for Responsible Business
Get PDFGone are the days when it was accepted that shareholders were the ones for whose benefit business was done, and that the purpose of business was to maximize returns to shareholders. Today, it is universally accepted that a business has to look beyond maximizing profits. It has to take into account the needs all stakeholders, including the environment.
Several frameworks and approaches have been advocated to achieve the objective of optimizing the value of the corporation from multiple angles, including Triple Bottom Line, Responsible Business, Sustainability, Corporate Social Responsibility, etc. At the heart of all these concepts is the issue of being fair to all stakeholders. While Stakeholder Management concepts and theories advocate that the concerns and perspectives of all stakeholders, not just shareholders, be taken into account while business decisions are made, in real-world operations, stakeholder management is done more from the perspective of ‘managing stakeholders’ so that the obstacles to the success of business are reduced, and profits can be maximized. But in the new world, where the world is striving for sustainability keeping environment, society and governance in mind, there needs to be a shift in both mindsets regarding stakeholder management, as well as managerial processes of stakeholder management.
The commentary outlines what some of the changes needed are, how some of the process changes can be made, and compares multiple approaches for managing for multiple stakeholders
Emerging Trends in Supply Chain Resilience: A Systematic Literature Review
Get PDFFollowing the COVID-19 pandemic, the increased geopolitical tensions and trade wars and increased frequency of extreme weather conditions due to climate change revealed the importance of building resilience to mitigate the impact of such unforeseen challenges. Understanding supply chain resilience and building capabilities is essential for quickly responding to and recovering from disruptions. With the PRISMA approach, 335 articles were analyzed to illuminate the multifaceted nature of supply chain capabilities by synthesizing existing research on resilience, identifying key trends, and highlighting areas for future investigation.
By identifying key trends in supply chain resilience, this study makes significant contributions to the theoretical understanding of supply chain capabilities within the framework of the dynamic capability view. This study offers valuable insights for practitioners aiming to enhance understanding and guide efforts toward building more resilient supply chains in a world characterized by uncertainty
Rhetoric and Tactics of the Woman, Life, Freedom Protest Movement in Iran
Get PDFThe Woman, Life, Freedom movement in Iran emerged as a significant societal response to the tragic death of Mahsa Amini in 2022. This movement is characterized by unique strategies that aim to draw global attention to the plight of women in Iran and their struggle for rights and freedoms. The movement utilizes several tactics, including cutting hair, burning scarves, turban knocking, and the rhetorical strategy of a song anthem. These tactics and rhetoric convey the emotional weight of the movement and invite broader participation and support from diverse audiences. A pragmatist feminist analysis of these protest methods reveals their effectiveness in challenging the status quo and advocating for social justice. If Iranian politicians of the Islamic Republic of Iran ignore the movement, it could escalate tensions between the regime and its citizens, potentially leading to increased radicalization
Childhood Sexual Abuse Among Asian American Adults: Prevalence, Cultural Barriers, and Mental Health Implications
Get PDFChildhood sexual abuse represents a significant public health concern, particularly within minority populations, where adversities and complications are prevalent but understudied. This study aims to investigate the mental health of Asian American childhood sexual abuse survivors and explore the prevalence of childhood sexual abuse among Asian adults. A secondary analysis of the 2020 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data was conducted, including a final sample of 1,894 Asian adults (0.16% of the total sample size of N = 401,958). Among these participants, 16.8% (n = 1,894) reported experiencing CSA. The most common forms of abuse were inappropriate touching (11.8%, n = 224), being forced to touch someone inappropriately (7.2%, n = 136), and being forced to have sex (4%, n = 76). Regression analysis revealed that CSA was significantly associated with lower education levels (OR = 1.32) and higher income (OR = 1.79), suggesting socioeconomic factors play a role in CSA reporting. Within Asian American communities, childhood sexual abuse remains a taboo topic, leading to a reluctance among adults to engage in sexual health research. This brief report highlights the dearth of research and the stigma surrounding discussions of sexual abuse among Asian American adults. There is a critical need for early intervention programs that focus on the mental health of childhood sexual abuse survivors, particularly within minority communities such as Asian Americans. Addressing this issue can support those affected and help reduce the disparities minority populations face
Wells of Pain, Walls of Silence: October 7 and Sexual Violence Against Women at Wartime
Get PDFThis essay focuses on sexual violence against women during the October 7 massacre and the following captivity of female hostages in the Gaza Strip. Its premise is twofold. First, it puts forward the resoluteness with which sexual violence against women must be condemned, as it transcends any politics. Sexual violence against women is unacceptable under any circumstances and cannot be used as a weapon in any kind of conflict. Next, various silencing walls that obstruct both condemnation of such violence and full exposure of it will be delineated. These are walls of Political Silence, Collective Shame Silence, Victim’s Shame Silence, and Post-Traumatic Silence. While these categories may overlap, this taxonomy helps illuminate the various factors that perpetuate silence regarding wartime sexual violence against women. These walls of silence not only obstruct truth-finding but also impede accountability and the development of effective preventive measures against future sexual violence against women. As concluded, there is an urgent need to dismantle themechanisms that obscure wartime sexual violence and to invest efforts in strengthening new strategies that will effectively protect women from sexual violence in wartime
Viewing the World Through the Prism of Cross-cultural Romances: Film Review of Christmas as Usual (2023) and Further Reflections
Get PDFAre they tools? Anglophone West African countries’ students’ misconception of media literacy and critical thinking for combating misinformation
Get PDFThis study examines the media literacy and critical thinking levels of students of West African higher educational institutions as tools for combating misinformation in the sub-region. Data analysis using the mediation approach revealed differences in students\u27 understanding of media literacy and critical thinking and partially predicted their efficacy in combating misinformation. This stems largely from a misunderstanding of media literacy and critical thinking concepts as tools, as well as a lack of adequate provision for teaching the concepts and considering them as strategic tools for combating misinformation in the region. The study recommends concrete policy and managerial solutions to the stakeholders involved
Literature review on appropriate health-based standards for direct and indirect potable reuse as well as various non-potable reuse scenarios
Get PDFProject Summary
Objectives: Water reuse is an increasingly important response to water stress; however, major advancements in water reuse have neglected small, rural communities that comprise most public water systems. The objective of this project is to accelerate water reuse adoption in rural communities by increasing technical and community readiness. The general hypothesis is that community readiness for water reuse in small systems can be accelerated by a convergence of technical, informational, social, and institutional innovation. Also, we hypothesize that severe water scarcity need not be a prerequisite for water reuse implementation, given careful attention to windows of opportunity that integrate multiple community concerns.
Approach: Barriers to water reuse adoption are intertwined and complex. Therefore, our proposed work will be an integrated research and engagement program in which we: (1) address knowledge gaps and generate frameworks for overcoming these barriers, and (2) use research outputs to evaluate and accelerate community readiness for reuse in five case studies. Both general activities will be executed in parallel such that knowledge can be co-produced with decision-makers. Specific methods to address knowledge gaps include community surveys, the use of a prototype calculation engine, and desktop, bench-scale and pilot-scale evaluations of treatment technologies. Specific methods to accelerate community readiness include legal and policy analyses and case-study evaluations of five small water systems.
Expected Results: This project is expected to produce outputs and outcomes that lead to acceleration of community readiness for reuse in small systems. Specifically, key results include modular, decision support tools such as water inventories, technology databases, and cost and demand curves for reuse. These outputs will be integrated into institutional and regulatory decision-making processes in small, rural, underserved communities with results made available to communities through workshops, outreach events, and publications. We will go through many iterative processes throughout the project in which feedback from small community members and stakeholders will inform the modifications of tools and outputs so that they are indeed meaningful and useful to small communities facing unique challenges
Precise Positioning System Acoustic Sensor Test Alignment
Get PDFThis project entails designing and developing a mechanism to accurately place an underwater testing unit and an acoustic sensor in precise, calculated locations in an underwater testing tank to ensure effective placement repeatability for testing purposes. The initial project prompt was provided to Team 17 by sponsor representatives, Dave Lavallee and Adam Maziarz, from Raytheon, who detailed their specific design expectations in our preliminary meeting. The most important design characteristics of this project are the ability to displace an object precisely and accurately and in multiple degrees of motion, autonomous movement, and a method of determining and ensuring precise placement of the testing units including an acoustic sensor. Throughout the Fall 2023 semester, Team 17 produced a working prototype which satisfied most of the given and developed engineering and customer requirements. This prototype was partially autonomous, producing accurate and precise results which are verified through the developed software interface.
During the Spring 2024 semester, our group developed a final assembly which improved almost every aspect of the proof-of-concept prototype. Our final assembly reliably reproduces motion in the X and Z directions, as well as an angular swiveling movement for the unit under test. These movements are accurate and are performed automatically by motors controlled by a GUI interface via Python and an Arduino chip. Several pertinent engineering analyses were performed throughout the duration of this project, including extensive testing of individual components and holistic system functionality, a lead screw torque analysis, stepper motor acoustic analyses, QFD/house of quality product analyses, and cost and resource analyses. This project was completed to both Raytheon’s and the University of Rhode Island’s satisfaction, and this report details the year-long process of this project’s development in full