Course Description In this course, we will explore the question of the actual and potential connections between democracy and education. Our focus of attention will be placed on a critical examination of democratic theory and its implications for the civic education roles and contributions of teachers, adult educators, community development practitioners, and community organizers. We will survey and deal critically with a range of competing conceptions of democracy, variously described as classical, republican, liberal, radical, marxist, neomarxist, pragmatist, feminist, populist, pluralist, postmodern, and/or participatory. Using narrative inquiry as a means for illuminating and interpreting contemporary practice, we will analyze the implications of different conceptions of democracy for the practical work of civic education.

Democracy and education.

Prospering in Dynamically-Competitive Environments: Organizational Capability as Knowledge Integration

List of Acronyms and Abbreviations List of Figures, Tables and Boxes Preface About the Contributors Part 1: Introduction 1. The Ecological Challenge in Organization Theory and Organizational Behaviour Ralph Meirna and Richard Welford Part 2: Framing the Organizational Dimensions of the Natural Environment 2. Defining the Problem: Diagnostic 'Tools' to Explore the Evolution of Unsustainable Practices in Organizations Tony Ernerson and Richard Welford 3. The Challenge of Ecological Logic: Explaining Distinctive Organizational Phenomena in Corporate Environmental Management Ralph Meima 4. Power, Organizational Culture and Ecological Abuse Tony Ernerson and Richard Welford Part 3: Developing Strategies for Managerial Action 5. Developing an Environmental Culture Through Organizational Change and Learning Minna Halrne 6. Reassessing Culture and Strategy: Environmental Improvement, Structure, Leadership and Control John Dodge 7. Culture Change, Pluralism and Participation David Jones and Richard Welford 8. Human Resource Management, Strategic Organizational Capabilities and Sustainable Development Tony Ernerson, Rdph Meimu, Romney Tansley and Richard Welford References Index

Culture and organizations

Strategic Management: An Integrated Approach

This article examines developments in business simulation gaming during the past 40 years. Covered in this article are a brief history of business games, the changing technology employed in the development and use of business games, changes in why business games are adopted and used, changes in how business games are administered, and the current state of business gaming. Readers interested in developments in other areas of simulation gaming (urban planning, social studies, ecology, economics, geography, health, etc.) are encouraged to look at other articles appearing during the 40th anniversary year of Simulation & Gaming and at the many fine articles that appeared in the silver anniversary issue of Simulation & Gaming (December 1995).

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Developments in Business Gaming

Business simulation gaming has been around for quite a few years. The pedagogical and, more recently, the assessment value of gaming has been recognized and accepted in many circles. Many functional and total enterprise gaming exercises have been used in various business courses. Over the year, as technology has improved, simulation exercises have become more sophisticated and user friendly. The student can now concentrate on the content and learning in the gaming exercise without getting too diverted by the mechanics of playing the game. With the advent of the Internet an added dimension of convenience is now available. Using the World Wide Web WWW is a natural extension of making simulation games more powerful and the access more convenient. Due to the ubiquitous nature of the World Wide Web, which is accessible today from any home computer connected to the Internet, it behooves academics to explore and take advantage of this technology. This article delineates one such implementation that makes the entire game available on the Web. The game has been in continuous use for the past 3 years. The various components of the game and how the programming languages Practical Extraction and Reporting Language PERL and JavaScript can provide the functionality for making the game available on the Internet are described.

Creating a web-based simulation gaming exercise using PERL and JavaScript

Purpose – The main aim of this paper is to investigate the potential of Cloud Computing as a multilayer integrative collaboration space for knowledge acquisition, nurturing and sharing. The paper will pinpoint benefits and challenges of Cloud Computing in satisfying the new techno-sociological requirements of the knowledge society through the provision of information technology (IT) green services. Furthermore, the article calls for the engagement of researchers to generate additional discussion and dialog in this emerging and challenging area. Design/methodology/approach – The paper applies a conceptual analysis to explore the utilization of the Cloud ecosystem as a new platform for knowledge management (KM) technologies characterized by environmental and economic benefits. Findings – This paper reveals the emergence of a new layer in the Cloud stack known as Knowledge Management-as-a-Service. The article discusses how KM has the opportunity to evolve in synergy with Cloud Computing technologies using th...

Cloud computing: a collaborative green platform for the knowledge society

The authors considered two principles of simulation design (simple rules and smart algorithms) and three essential attributes (choice of industries, employer-employee relationships, and real markets for products and participant services) for strategic management business simulations. They applied these considerations and a constructivist approach to develop a computer-assisted simulation, using it to investigate the concurrent and predictive relationships of market share and production experience on profitability. The authors found that the relationships are (a) as expected and stronger than those reported in an earlier study using a simulation of a more conventional design and (b) more consistent with a well-known series of field studies. They suggest that computer-assisted simulations developed through a constructivist approach may be used to advance the discipline of strategic management.

A constructivist approach to designing business simulations for strategic management

The importance of rapid and automated model development for decision support is recognized in production scheduling applications, where problem instances are often similar to some general model but not necessarily consistent with it, and yet there is little of either time or modeling expertise available. In the modeling literature, there are few, if any, constructs of model development from component parts. Model construction is closely associated with the structure and representation of model information and with the abstraction of problem information from the user. Proceeding from a taxonomy of general production scheduling models, we develop a schema to represent model information in an object-oriented framework that relies on the definitions of natural entities, rather than on a collection of models from past experience. We show the interactions of user information with the model objects in the construction of a model to support a decision in a problem instance.

Object-oriented model construction in production scheduling decisions

This article develops and empirically tests a research framework that models the role of technological, organizational, and environmental factors in organizational intention toward using e-procurement systems. The partial least square analysis of survey data from 211 firms in China demonstrates that technological factors including perceived efficiency benefits and perceived ease, organizational factors including business to business commerce expertise, information sharing culture, and top management support, and an environmental factor, business partner pressure, shape in different ways organizational intention to adopt and to continue with e-procurement. The findings of the study not only offer valuable insights for stimulating the diffusion of e-procurement systems but also provide important guidance to systems vendors in strategizing their marketing campaigns and focusing limited resources on relevant strategic components.

Sharma Pillutla

Papers

Creating a web-based simulation gaming exercise using PERL and JavaScript

Cloud computing: a collaborative green platform for the knowledge society

A constructivist approach to designing business simulations for strategic management

Object-oriented model construction in production scheduling decisions

Drivers of Adoption and Continued Use of E-Procurement Systems: Empirical Evidence from China