Team wisdom in software development projects and its impact on project performance

The purpose of this paper is to examine the professionalism and professionalization of sustainability assurance providers based on the experiences and perceptions of auditors involved in this activity.,The empirical study was based on 38 semi-directed interviews conducted with assurance providers from accounting and consulting firms.,The findings highlight the division of this professional activity between accounting and consulting firms, each of which question the professionalism of the other. The main standards in this area tend to be used as legitimizing tools to enhance the credibility of the assurance process rather than effective guidelines to improve the quality of the verification process. Finally, the complex and multifaceted skills required to conduct sound sustainability assurance and the virtual absence of recognized and substantial training programs in this area undermine the professionalization of assurance providers.,This work has important practical implications for standardization bodies, assurance providers and stakeholders concerned by the quality and the reliability of sustainability disclosure.,This study shows how practitioners in this area construct and legitimize their professional activity in terms of identity, standardization and competences. The work contributes to the literatures on the assurance of sustainability reports, self-regulation through standardization and professionalization.

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Professionalizing the assurance of sustainability reports: the auditors’ perspective

Although concepts like “ethics” are taught in higher education, organisations in many countries seem unable to mitigate the negative behaviour arising from ethical dilemmas and issues within the workplace. This has led academics to research the role of “spirituality” in higher education. Spirituality is now regarded as a concept separate from organised religion that gives meaning and connection to life and work. It is suggested that spirituality might enable students to develop a sense of themselves as responsible individuals, capable of creating meaning and purpose within their own lives, and the lives of others, by connecting with themselves, people, and their work.
Within Australia there has been increased interest in spirituality within school education, yet significant research in the area of higher education is lacking. This study addresses this gap in an Australian regional university—the University of Tasmania—and focuses on two faculties: the Faculty of Education and the Tasmanian School of Business and Economics. These faculties were selected because of their impact on society; education graduates influence individuals through school and other teaching, and business graduates influence the economy at both small and large scales. Academics from both faculties were interviewed in this exploratory multiple case study, to examine academics’ viewpoints on the incorporation of spirituality in teacher and business education, and its impact on students’ professional identity.
Three topics emerged from the data, addressing the “Nature of Spirituality”, “Spirituality in the Higher Education Curriculum”, and “Teaching Spirituality.” Within these topics a number of themes were identified. Key themes associated with the first topic included academics’ understanding of spirituality, as a religious or secular concept. In the second topic, key themes addressed academics’ perceptions of including spirituality within higher education, and the topics they perceived could be taught within their faculties. Finally, themes associated with teaching spirituality included the pedagogical approaches that academics could use to teach spirituality, and which could help students develop their professional identities, together with the challenges faced by academics to teach spirituality in higher education.
Among the academics there was no consensus about the nature of spirituality, and all perceived a need for a commonly understood academic definition of spirituality. They suggested adapting a range of pedagogical approaches to teaching spirituality, and believed that spirituality could have a positive impact on students’ professional identities. They all felt that there are some challenges to incorporating spirituality into their respective curricula, with most believing that it should be taught indirectly, rather than overtly. Some education academics were already teaching a unit that includes spiritual wellbeing, and suggested units such as “spirituality and decision-making” that could be taught with an underpinning of spirituality. Some academics in the Tasmanian School of Business and Economics teach ethics and include a spiritual element within it, and suggested additional units that could be taught within the business school.
This study revealed that academics generally perceive the inclusion of spirituality to be beneficial to students’ development as professionals, enabling students to reflect before making decisions that impact themselves and others. Academics also felt that incorporating spirituality in higher education would require careful planning, and involve determining consensus on a definition of spirituality, and addressing the perception that spirituality is irrelevant in higher education.

Academic viewpoints on spirituality in higher education : an exploratory qualitative study

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Buildning a midwifery profession in South Asia

During the mid- and late 1990s in North Korea, a period marked by the “Arduous March”, discourse shifted from “conquering” the natural environment to “rationally using and protecting” it. It is arg...

Discourses on the Natural Environment in North Korea: Changing Regime Dynamics in the 1990s

Amidst growing claims very recently by several distinguished scholars that business management should be considered as a true profession, we evaluate its professional status from a sociological analysis of the profession. We argue that whether it is a profession or not, the managers need to demonstrate professionalism. We understand the notion and meaning of professionalism and its importance for professions and non-professional occupations. In course of evaluating and discussing professionalism by Evetts, as embodiment of elements of both occupational value and ideology, as controlling the organization of work of business managers, we argue that professionalism of business managers is best understood when the ‘notion of control’ is embedded in the very idea of ‘character’.

Evaluating the profession and professionalism of business managers: control embedded in character

In this paper the authors employ the Aristotelian virtue ethics framework of character development and habitual cultivation of courage to analyse the character of Santiago, the protagonist of Ernest Hemingway’s novel The Old Man and the Sea. This analysis is an attempt to reposition Santiago as a character who exhibits unflinching adherence to his vocational code of ethics in the execution of his work and demonstrates noble courage in battling adversities of his life and career. It is in his capacity as a professional (fisherman) that he can become relevant to the modern day business managers presenting to him the Aristotelian treatise of practical wisdom, virtue and courage through his character architecture and consummate craftsmanship.

Understanding the character of Santiago in The Old Man and the Sea within the framework of Aristotelian virtue ethics and its contemporary relevance in ethical management

This chapter explores the concept of “just sustainability”. The notions of “sustainability” and “social justice” share the common agenda of conservation of nature. As per the Brundtland report, sustainability is conceived as a test of humanity’s ability to meet “the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. However, there are different paradigms of sustainability in the literature, namely the “green” or environmental agenda and the “social justice” focused “brown” or poverty reduction agenda. While the more immediate focus of social justice and/or environmental justice (both social justice and environmental justice focus on distributive conceptions of justice: human security issues related to justice, equity, human rights, and poverty reduction, and so on) is intragenerational, the more pressing focus of sustainability is intergenerational. The agendas of “social justice” and “sustainability” thus seem to be conflicting. In this chapter, I focus on the interdependency of social justice/environmental justice and “sustainability” even when sustainability is framed as green environment and social justice focuses on the brown social agenda of poverty reduction. The paper builds on the argument that unless global social justice (intragenerational access) is ensured under a fair social and institutional arrangement, the relationship of economic growth with sustainable development will always remain contentious and sustainable development will remain a mere ideal. I conclude that organisations and institutions must explore the common ground between justice and sustainability.

Sustainable Development and the Agenda of Global Social Justice

There is considerable consensus on the idea that Aristotelian virtue ethics advocates moral realism. In numerous works, the well-known business ethicist Edwin Hartman grapples with reconciling the unitary vision of life that a particular kind of moral realism advocates and the pluralist respect for diverse cultures and belief systems that comprise our world. This paper closely follows Hartman's efforts to reconcile his liberal values with his guarded support for Aristotelian moral realism. We argue that the realist interpretation of Aristotle's function argument can be employed to strengthen Hartman's critique of the concept of Homo economicus, which is often posited by its proponents and critics alike as the only viable position for a business manager. Drawing from Aristotle, the paper posits a novel notion of species-excellence as the ultimate telos of human life and an objective basis for a critique of Homo economicus. 

Nisigandha Bhuyan

Papers

Evaluating the profession and professionalism of business managers: control embedded in character

Understanding the character of Santiago in The Old Man and the Sea within the framework of Aristotelian virtue ethics and its contemporary relevance in ethical management

Sustainable Development and the Agenda of Global Social Justice

Hartman's quandary: Reconciling pluralism and realism for virtue ethics in business