Documents found
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102721.More information
Mayotte's coral reefs (342 km2), mangroves (8, 46 km2) and seagrass beds (7,60 km2) provide important ecosystem services of which the most important are the coastal protection, carbon sequestration, water purification and fish biomass production. The quantity and quality of these services have been decreasing steadily for several years and should continue to do so if no action is taken to contain anthropogenic pressures. The coral cover of the fringing reefs and the barrier reef has thus declined respectively by 60 % in 15 years and 15 % in 8 years, while the pioneer front of Sonneratia for mangroves has declined by 13 % in 6 years. As for the water quality, it suggests a degraded state of seagrass beds. The estimated annual value of these services amounts to EUR 151 million. This value would then rise to EUR 188 million if the ecosystems were in pristine conditions. This article shows that the preservation of coastal ecosystems is essential from an economic point of view.
Keywords: Valeurs d'usage indirect, services écosystémiques, récifs coralliens, mangroves, herbiers, Mayotte, Océan indien, Indirect use values, ecosystem services, coral reefs, mangroves, seagrass, Mayotte, Indian Ocean
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102722.More information
This research analyzes the performance of two Brazilian business networks, Campina Grande and João Pessoa. The results reveal significant differences according to the operation mode in these networks. The network of Campina Grande has a dynamic operation that brings positive results to the group in contrast to that of João Pessoa. Its functioning can be explained by four variables that affected their performance : the role of institutions, the expectation of members and their collective and long term vision, the selection of partners based on a set of criteria, and the transfer of knowledge at several levels of the network. The network of João Pessoa remained an emerging and informal network. The members are rather motivated by individual and short-term goals.
Keywords: réseau d'entreprises, performance, Brésil, business networks, performance, Brazil, red de empresas, rendimiento, Brasil
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102723.More information
In recent years, China has become Africa's most important economic partner. Chinese companies of all sizes and sectors bring investments, managerial know-how and entrepreneurial energy to all 54 African countries. China also plays host to the largest population of African migrants seeking business opportunities as well as African students in search of renowned universities. It is therefore useful to compare management practices between China and Africa. Through an analytical review, our study highlights the similarities and differences of management philosophies, managerial styles, networking, and entrepreneurship. This study helps strengthen knowledge of Chinese and African management styles and suggests directions for future studies that could ensure the success of the collaboration between China and Africa.
Keywords: African management, Chinese management, managerial practices, entrepreneurship, networking, Management Africain, Management Chinois, Pratiques Managériales, Entrepreneuriat, Réseautage, Gestión africana, gestión china, prácticas gerenciales, emprendimiento, trabajo en red
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102724.More information
Teleworking from home may be an emerging trend in work organization, but authors have overestimated its popularity. In fact some studies show that, with its inconvenient aspects for both employees and employers, teleworking is not a panacea. In some cases the arrangement falls or only partially succeeds. Success in implementing a teleworking program is not guaranteed and relies on certain conditions. In view of the emergence of teleworking and the resistance to change it engenders, it is important to better understand the conditions that lead to a successful telework experience.This study focuses on a specific condition for success, namely the organizational support offered to home teleworkers. This is an important prerequisite over which an organization's leaders exercise a certain degree of control. More specifically, this study will attempt to answer the following question : To what extent do three sources of organizational support — that of telesupervisors, colleagues and senior executives — influence home teleworking success? Although the support provided to teleworkers is often considered a determinant of telework success, it has not been fully investigated. The few studies that do exist on the subject were conducted years ago, included only a small number of teleworkers, and explored the impact of personal characteristics and working conditions on a teleworker's attitudes and performance. To our knowledge, the present study is the fïrst to analyze the relationship between organizational support and the success of home teleworking. More specifically, we will analyze two forms of organizational support offered by various agents — emotional and instrumental support. Emotional support is expressed by sympathy and openness to the teleworker, while instrumental or hands-on support directly helps an employee meet work objectives. To our knowledge, this study is the first to propose and test a typology involving forms of support (emotional and instrumental), and to analyze their impact on home teleworking success. A questionnaire was distributed in three companies with home teleworking arrangements. The teleworking coordinator distributed the questionnaire to all employees who had been teleworking for at least six months. Most of the 193 respondents who returned the questionnaire are clerical workers (47%) or professionals (36%). On average, the respondents have 16 years of seniority within their organization, 8 years in their current position, and 3 years as teleworkers. They telecommute an average of 21 hours per week, and spend 13 hours at the company. Their average age is 42 years old. Slightly over half of respondents are women (56%), live with a partner (55%), and have children (56%). In terms of educational profile, 16% of respondents have a high school diploma, 25% a college diploma, 48% a bachelor's degree, and 11% a graduate or postgraduate degree. The "teleworking success" concept was measured with retrospective questions on 13 success indicators including job performance, work volume, feelings of belonging, advancement possibilities and job creativity. A factorial analysis (with Varimax rotation) generated three interpretable factors (eigenvalues above 1). Together, these three factors accounted for 65% of the scale variance. After dropping ambiguous scale items, those three factors were : Job performance (4 items, alpha = .85), quality of life (4 items, alpha = .81) and job commitment (3 items, alpha = .79). The strongest teleworking success factor was undoubtedly job performance since it explained 46% of the scale variance, compared with about 10% for each of the two other factors. The fourth teleworking success variable was satisfaction with teleworking which was assessed with three indicators : satisfaction with working at home, the home work environment, and the respondent's participation in the teleworking program.The support offered by three categories of key agents—telesupervisors, colleagues and senior executives—was assessed on a series of statements from our literature review. Each statement is associated with a 5-point Likert scale with values ranging from (1) rarely to (5) often. A factor analysis of the statements confirms that all types of support can be grouped into the emotional and instrumental forms of support. The factor analysis conducted on the supervisor support scale items generated four distinct factors that can in essence be sorted as follows under the emotional and instrumental headings : (1) The coordination and follow-up of the teleworker's tasks (instrumental support, 8 items, alpha = .81); (2) acceptance of telework as a legitimate work arrangement (emotional support, 5 items, alpha = .75); (3) performance planning (instrumental support, 2 items, alpha = .84) and (4) higher performance expectations (emotional support, 2 items, alpha = .70). Together, those four dimensions of supervisor support contribute 54 % of the scale variance. The factor analysis conducted on the colleague support scale items generated two factors that fit under the emotional and instrumental headings: (1) the coordination and follow-up of the teleworker's tasks (instrumental support, 4 items, alpha = .74) and (2) equal treatment of teleworkers (emotional support, 3 items, alpha = .61). A final factor analysis was conducted on the top management support scale items. Again two factors consistent with the emotional and instrumental support headings were retained : (1) the acceptance of telework as a legitimate work arrangement (emotional support, 4 items, alpha = .75) and (2) technical support (instrumental support, 2 items, alpha = .61). The results of our study generally confirm the importance of the instrumental support offered by telesupervisors (coordinating teleworkers' work and elaborating clear and specific job objectives) and by senior executives (giving appropriate equipment and specialized staff to repair them) on teleworking success. Results also confirm that the support of supervisors has a relatively greater influence on teleworking performance, which is the most important aspect of teleworking success (explaining 54% of the scale variance). It also appears that the emotional support offered by senior executives, that is their openness to telework, has a significant influence on job commitment. This study's results do not confirm a link between any forms of colleague support, either emotional or instrumental, on various indicators of teleworking success.These results may serve as a reference to companies and managers who wish to implement or improve the effectiveness of home-based teleworking. They demonstrate how different forms of support from various sources influence teleworking success, a concept that includes job performance, job commitment, quality of life, and satisfaction, all of which are variables that have a major impact on organizational performance.
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102727.More information
The trade unions' reluctance to accept the reforms envisaged in the Industrial Relations Act 1971 is cited as an important example of trade unions* intransigence and arrogance and of the fact that they consider themselves to be above law. But the way the trade unions fought the Act appears to be quite in keeping with the democratic procedure and the rule of law.
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102728.More information
Source of legitimacy and positive law for the International chamber of commerce (ICC) arbitrators in their praetorian solution search, the United Nations convention on the international sale of goods (CISG) has become foreseeable in arbitration, even when the parties in a contract have not specified the applicable law to their business relationship. Its attraction on the ICC arbitrators comes from its ability to offer them solutions which are helpful to solve and answer the questions to which they are confronted. As a privileged vehicle in the international commerce dispute resolution system, the CISG meets adequately a requirement resulting from the globalization of markets: the need to find a solution for the absence of lex fori of the ICC arbitrators. Therefore, the convention contributes significantly to the heightening of the security of international commercial transactions. Consequently, the rules of this convention, which are characterized by a great coherence, falls undoubtedly within the province of a trans-national phenomenon whose outcome might provide a lex fori to the ICC arbitrators. Subject to the requirements of the international legal order, the thesis which considers the CISG as a substitute for the international legal order lies on specific feelings and reasons. In a theoretical point of view, one has the feeling that the CISG's expansionism has no limits, except for the ones related to its own dynamic. Everything tends to ratify that it is a trans-national legal order vehicle since it constitutes the keystone of all the material uniformed rules (which are applicable to international sale contracts) originating from other sources stemming from the Incoterms, the ICC uniform customs and practices for documentary credits, Unidroit principles, etc. One might have the practical feeling that its implementation would undeniably satisfy the interests of the international economic society. Moreover, one inexorably experiences the impression that this convention might become the starting point of a future formalization of a trans-national legal order and of an arbitral lex fori for the arbitrators of the ICC.
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102729.More information
This article explores the history of the Italian diaspora in British Columbia through the lens of the New Ethnohistory, focusing on the tensions between the perceived continuity of tradition and cultural change. It argues that Italians have actively participated in three different types of colonialism in the Pacific region. First, even though Italian newcomers were almost absent in the early-nineteenth-century “exploitation” era associated with the fur trade and the salmon fisheries, they were later the backbone of the local extractive industries in the second part of the century. Second, the earliest consistent wave of Italians arrived during the “extraction” colonial era (1858–64), associated with gold mining, which also continued in certain areas long afterwards. Third, Italians benefitted from the ongoing structures of “settler colonialism” since the 1860s. This latter type of colonialism is associated with displacing Indigenous peoples and reshaping the landscape through the imposition of European-style agriculture. Indeed, this essay examines some British Columbian case studies of Italian-Indigenous peoples’ interactions as hermeneutical examples that problematize some historiographical tropes. Moreover, it presents the New Ethnohistory, particularly the Community Engaged-Scholarship (CES), as a methodology that could provide Italian Canadians with new historiographical perspectives. Finally, this article invites newcomers to engage in a meaningful reconciliation/conciliation with Indigenous peoples and their flourishing cultures to better comprehend their shared past.
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102730.More information
A set of challenges makes the role of business schools in society eminently critical. This essay adopts a critical perspective aimed at highlighting, supporting and legitimizing the capacity of academic actors to reappropriate, while renewing, their professional identity and their “craft”, with an emancipatory aim. This is expressed in the content, forms and methods of production of teaching and research, in connection with a wider range of actors within and around the academic institution. Three axes allow us to rethink business schools and their activities: temporality, spatiality and the domination/emancipation dialectic.
Keywords: Écoles de gestion, approches critiques du management, résistance, temporalité, spatialité, dialectique domination/émancipation, Business schools, critical management studies, resistance, temporality, spatiality, domination/emancipation dialectic, Escuelas de gestión, enfoques críticos de la gestión, resistencia, temporalidad, espacialidad, dialéctica de la dominación/emancipación