79 research outputs found
"Thank me therefore": Social Prestige, Probity and Self-determination of Nymue's character in Malory's "Le Morte Darthur"
No full textThe influence of context on the strategic decision-making process : a review of the literature
No full textThis paper critically reviews the strategic decision-making process literature, with a specific focus on the effects of context. Context refers to the top management team, strategic decision-specific characteristics, the external environment and firm characteristics. This literature review also develops an illustrative framework that incorporates these four different categories of contextual variables that influence the strategic decision-making process. As a result of the variety and pervasiveness of contextual variables featured within the literature, a comprehensive and up-to-date review is essential for organizing and synthesizing the extant literature to explicate an agenda for future research. The purpose of this literature review is threefold: first, to critically review the strategic decision-making process literature to highlight the underlying themes, issues, tensions and debates in the field; second, to identify the opportunities for future theory development; and third, to state the methodological implications arising from this review
The Virtual Dimension: Architecture, Representation, and Crash Culture
No full textIn a century immersed in technological acceleration, we have reached a strange new plateau in the human condition. Advanced technologies such as biometrics and DNA cloning have not only caught up with reality, they have in many ways already surpassed it. The Virtual Dimension critically examines the role that digital and immersive technologies have on the methods used by architects, designers, and artists to conceptualize and represent new mediated spaces, topologies, and both real and virtual communities. This collection of interdisciplinary essays addresses the implications of going virtual from a variety of cultural and theoretical viewpoints. Over thirty contributors, all leading architects, urban theorists, philosophers, scientists, and cultural critics, have contributed to this collection. These include Stan Allen, professor of architecture at Columbia University; Gareth Branwyn, contributing editor of Wired and co-author of The Happy Mutant Handbook and Jamming the Media: A Citizen\u27s Guide; Canadian artist Char Davies; Manuel Delanda, author of War in the Age of Intelligent Machines; Los Angeles-based architect Neil Denari; Keller Easterling, co-author of Seaside ; William J. Mitchell, author of City of Bits; Vivian Sobchack, associate dean of film studies at UCLA; and philosopher and author Paul Virilio. Editor John Beckmann is a practicing architect as well as the founder of his own design company, Axis Mundi. The breadth and size of this collection will make it the most important reader on the subject, of interest to anyone excited by the possibilities of electronic communication.https://digitalcommons.framingham.edu/books/1029/thumbnail.jp
Do Emotions Matter?:The Roles of CEO Emotion Regulation and Affectivity in Strategic Decision Making
No full textHigh stakes strategic decision-making is inherently emotive, yet theoretical understanding of the role of emotions in strategic management remains limited, with senior executives seen as impervious to emotional influences. While cognitive and behavioral insights have informed knowledge of the determinants of firm performance, this study seeks to develop new theory by examining how CEO emotion regulation and affectivity (both positive and negative) shape strategic decision-making and, ultimately, firm performance. Drawing on theories of emotion regulation and affective appraisal, we theorize that CEO affectivity is a major influence on strategic decision-making, with these effects moderated by prevailing environmental conditions. Our model offers a theoretically grounded approach to understanding the mechanisms by which CEO emotional tendencies affect organizational outcomes, contributing to the literature on strategic decision-making. Using a longitudinal sample of 160 firms with triadic data from CEOs, CEO spouses, and CFOs alongside objective performance metrics, our findings substantiate these relationships, adding new theoretical understanding of the role of affectivity in strategic decision-making
Belonging and not belonging : understanding India in novels by Paul Scott, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and V.S. Naipaul.
No full textPhDThis thesis is essentially about the "how" and "why" of the Indian
experience as documented in novels by Paul Scott, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
and V S Naipaul. The study points to the difficulty of arriving at any
conclusive definition of the country and its people. I show that
differences in attitudes, responses or behaviour are both overt and
subtle, and depend upon whether the writer or the character identifies
with the situation or community with which he or she interacts. It is
the individual's sense of belonging or not belonging to his or her own
group - be this along racial, cultural or gender lines - that accounts
for the differing perspectives evident in these novels. The points-of-
view of the outsider and the insider can therefore be seen as
mutual comments upon the other.
Since the struggle between belonging and not belonging becomes acute
when the old meets the new, focus is centred on communities
experiencing change. These include the British in India, West-Indian
Indians and westernised Indians. Despite their differences, all three
communities share similar reasons for either an acceptance or
rejection of the 'Other'. The thesis argues that the need for
emotional stability compels allegiance to the traditional group, while
the desire for individuality encourages surrender to the new. The
former nurtures a sense of belonging while, it is argued, that the
latter is perceived as the hallmark of those who do not belong.
Tensions arise when both these needs demand to be met. What I show to
be ironic in this struggle between belonging and not belonging is that
those things which individuals overtly reject are often unexpressed
parts of their personal pysche. The barrier between "them" and "us" is
therefore very fragile
Playing Politics:An Upper Echelons' Perspective on Political Behaviour During Acquisition Decision Making
No full textThe pre-deal phase of an acquisition is complex, with high stakes and high uncertainty. Consequently, acquisition decision making can be seen as an inherently political process. While political behaviour is a central concept in organizational theory, and despite its inevitability during acquisition decision making owing to the contested nature of the pre-deal phase, there is a shortage of theory and evidence concerning the antecedents, consequences and moderators of political behaviour. To address these theoretical shortcomings, we develop and test a theoretical model of political behaviour focusing on the psychological context of the top management team (TMT). We argue that while political behaviour risks undermining acquisition performance, the degree of board involvement during the pre-deal phase can enable some TMTs to attenuate the damaging effects of political behaviour. Further, we theorize two key antecedents variously fuelling and constraining political behaviour. We contend that while TMT cohesion reduces political behaviour, cognitive diversity increases political behaviour while suppressing the potential for TMT cohesion to prevent political behaviour. We test our theoretical model using a field-based sample of 109 UK acquisitions, combining multiple informants with objective secondary data
Deciding Fast:Examining the Relationship between Strategic Decision Speed and Decision Quality across Multiple Environmental Contexts
No full textRapid innovation, shortened product life cycles and fierce competition place great pressures on top managers to make fast strategic decisions. However, a key question in strategic decision-making research is whether decision speed helps or harms decision quality, and there is a shortage of theory and evidence concerning the consequences of decision speed across different environmental contexts. We develop new theory by considering the effects of decision speed on decision quality under conditions of environmental munificence, under conditions of dynamism, and under the joint conditions of munificence and dynamism. We test our theory through analysis of multi-informant survey data drawn from top management teams and secondary databases, in 117 UK firms. Our findings demonstrate that munificence is the central generative mechanism which moderates the relationship between decision speed and decision quality, and markedly alters the previously theorized positive effects of decision speed in dynamic contexts
“Shaping Fantasies”: Responses to Shakespeare's Magic in Popular Culture
No full textRecent criticism has shown a tendency to demystify literature and distance itself from the human capacity for wonder. It has also downplayed the idea of genius, often subordinating the autonomy of the author to larger linguistic or political pressures and structures. In this essay I aim to demonstrate the continuing potency of the idea of the vates, or poet prophet, not in criticism, but in popular culture. By contrast with Plato, who thought the productions of poets and artists were merely weak copies of copied forms, Neil Gaiman's The Sandman, Terry Pratchett's Lords and Ladies, and Gareth Roberts's “The Shakespeare Code” all present the composition, performance and quotation of poetry as potentially magical, creative acts with the potential to summon new worlds into existence. Through their playful engagement with the boundaries which separate fiction from reality, this world from the next, each of these three popular responses to Shakespeare's magic achieves a delicate equipoise between belief and unbelief, scepticism and wonder, which may prove more subtle and satisfying than many scholarly responses
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