Few people have bothered to defend the Majoritarian, winner take all character of the current Canadian electoral system. This parliamentary system has been in existence in the same form since the founding of the modern state in 1867. In these remarks, I offer a defense of Majoritarianism in the Canadian context when the alternative is some form of Proportional Representation. These remarks were prepared as an opening statement in a debate on electoral reform at a Faculty of Public Affairs 75th Anniversary conference at Carleton University, March 3, 2017.
The debate arose because of the Prime Minister's announced intention to replace the current system with some other during the election campaign that led to his victory in 2015. The debate occurred a few months after the release of a lengthy report on electoral reform by a special allparty committee of the House of Commons. A few weeks before the debate, the Prime Minister announced (independently of the debate, of course) that his government would no longer pursue electoral reform, perhaps because it looked like he would not be able to avoid a referendum, a process which is hard to control. In any event, and especially in the light of recent attempts to change the system both at the federal level and in some provinces, I think it is important for people to understand that the existing electoral system is a sensible one that likely will continue to serve us well.
The purpose of this article is to improve understanding of internationalization as a strategic response to the catalysts of globalization and the knowledge society. The paper will attempt to critically identify and interpret how the aforementioned elements are being recontextualized and translated into responsive internationalization policies and systemic institutional change. The article takes a critical analysis approach on current internationalization efforts and provides a conceptual framework for developing a performance indicator set through a combination of institutional change theory (North 1990) and the Delta cycle for internationalization (Rumbley 2010). Recommendations on future research areas are made at the conclusion of the article.
The Canadian contribution and data set prepared as part of the Global Media and Internet Concentration (GMIC) project offers an independent academic, empirical and data-driven analysis of a deceptively simple yet profoundly important question: have telecom, media and internet markets become more concentrated over time, or less? Media Ownership and Concentration is presented from more than a dozen sectors of the telecom-media-internet industries, including film, music and book industries.
This report examines the development of the media economy over the past thirty-five years. Since beginning this project a decade ago, we have focused on analyzing a comprehensive as possible selection of the biggest telecoms, Internet and media industries (based on revenue) in Canada, including: mobile wireless and wireline telecoms; Internet access; cable, satellite & IPTV; broadcast television, specialty and pay television services as well as Internet-based video subscription and download services; radio; newspapers; magazines; music; Internet advertising; social media; operating systems; browsers, etc.
The study examined work-life experiences of 25,000 Canadians who were employed full time in 71 public, private and not-for-profit organizations across all provinces and territories between June 2011 and June 2012. Two-thirds of survey respondents had incomes of $60,000 or more a year and two-thirds were parents.
Previous studies were conducted in 1991 and 2001.
“It is fascinating to see what has changed over time and what hasn’t,’’ said Duxbury.
Among the findings:
Most Canadian employees still work a fixed nine-to-five schedule – about two-thirds.
Overall, the typical employee spends 50.2 hours in work-related activities a week. Just over half of employees take work home to complete outside regular hours.
The use of flexible work arrangements such as a compressed work week (15 per cent) and flexible schedules (14 per cent) is much less common.
Fifty-seven per cent of those surveyed reported high levels of stress.
One-third of working hours are spent using email.
Employees in the survey were twice as likely to let work interfere with family as the reverse.
Work-life conflict was associated with higher absenteeism and lower productivity.
Succession planning, knowledge transfer and change management are likely to be a problem for many Canadian organizations.
There has been little career mobility within Canadian firms over the past several years.
This report provides key findings and recommendations from a study of work-life conflict and employee well-being that involved 4500 police officers working for 25 police forces across Canada. Findings from this study should help police forces across Canada implement policies and practices that will help them thrive in a "sellers market for labour."
People's satisfaction from some goods and services depends on
their relative as distinct from their absolute position as
consumers. Such items are called "positional goods", and a
restriction of their supply in the situation of general income
growth is conducive to expenditure escalation as in an arms race.
If education is a positional good in this sense, arrangements are
needed that will best prevent such an outcome. The introduction of
education vouchers of a value egual to the average per capita
public school expenditure, it is argued, will only hinder not help.
This is because some recipients will be tempted to obtain more
education with marginal additions to their vouchers from their own
pockets. Vouchers are thus welfare reducing because they encourage
rather than discourage "arms race" situations. Using a formal
median voter model we show that concerns over possible escalation
of expenditure will prompt a majority of voters to reject a
universal voucher system. We examine, as an alternative, a
selective voucher system that will remove the escalation problem.
Under this system only low-income families will receive vouchers.
We demonstrate that the median voter will favor such a selective
voucher system provided that the voucher-induced increase in
competition lowers costs and/or improves guality of education.
Older households face health-related risks, including risk of being in need of long-term care and mortality risk. How these risks affect financial portfolio choice of households depends on household preferences for long-term care and bequest. Using linked survey-administrative data on clients of a mutual fund company, this paper finds that the desire to have enough resources for long-term care and bequests are overall strong but also heterogeneous across households. The estimated relationship between actual stock share of households and the strength of these preferences is qualitatively similar but quantitatively much weaker compared to the predictions from the life-cycle model with the estimated preference heterogeneity. Based on the predictions from the model, this paper discusses what financial instruments would better meet the needs of households.
This survey study of senior municipal administrators examines the use of evaluative criteria in managerial performance evaluation and extends previous findings in the public sector context. The results reveal that the use of evaluative criteria is very similar to that found in Otley and Pollanen's (2000) public-sector study, but significantly different from those reported in several private-sector studies. Substantially lower proportions of budget-based criteria are found in both public-sector studies than in private-sector studies. Performance is higher under low- than high-uncertainty conditions and in larger than smaller organizations. The findings suggest that different evaluative criteria may be appropriate in the public and he findings suggest that different evaluative criteria may be appropriate in the public and private sectors, and that uncertainty and organizational size may affect performance.
Partial least squares (PLS) is sometimes used as an alternative to covariance-based structural equation modeling (SEM). This paper briefly reviews currently available SEM techniques, and provides a critique of the perceived advantages of PLS over covariance-based SEM as commonly cited by PLS users. Specific attention is drawn to the primary disadvantage of PLS, namely the lack of consistency of its parameter estimates. The instrumental variables (IV) /two stage least squares (2SLS) method of estimation is then described and presented as a potential alternative to PLS that might yield its perceived advantages without succumbing to its primary disadvantage. Preliminary simulation results show that: PLS parameter estimates exhibit substantial bias when the number of items is moderate; SEM-based methods yield lower bias; and IV/2SLS estimates may indeed provide a viable ordinary least squares (OLS)-based alternative to PLS.
A study of citations in four prominent journals indicates how deeply Hofstede's conceptualization dominates the understanding of culture in international business research. The implications of this intellectual hegemony for the development of the field are examined After considering some critiques of Hofstede's approach, three diverse alternatives to the value-based approach are discussed.
This paper provides a critical review of literature on management controls and their context. The review indicates that more emphasis has been placed on organizational than environmental factors and that the effectiveness of different controls in different contexts remains practically unaddressed. In general, research has been ad hoc and focused on results-oriented financial controls, short-term efficiency, and individual level of analysis. Even for commonly studied topics (e.g., budget controls), evidence has often been inconsistent and limited to manufacturing organizations, with little integration and refinement of previous theoretical models based on new evidence. Further research is required to investigate the relative importance of different financial and nonfinancial controls in different types of organizations in order to develop more comprehensive performance measurement and management frameworks.
Potential synergies between international trade and tourism are viewed optimistically by governments, yet research to assess their association is limited. To gain an understanding of trade and tourism relationships, this paper reports on a study which examines both product-related and tourism-related place image effects on consumer behavior simultaneously. Using the U.S. as the country of focus, key product and travel relationships are measured by structural equation modeling of consumer data from South Korea. Findings support the cross-over effect between one's beliefs about a country as a destination and as a producer, and one's willingness to travel to it and/or buy its products, and most strongly, that product beliefs affect views of travel destinations.
Information technology-based alliances are rapidly spreading in organizations, which calls upon researchers to develop an adequate theoretical lens to examine this phenomenon and its key associated outcomes, such as the business performance of alliance firms. However, strategic alliances are mostly examined from a transaction cost economics perspective, and the results on performance are inconclusive at best. This paper proposes an alternative lens - the resource-based view - and applies an extended version of it to explain the performance of firms in IT-based alliances. A conceptual model is developed that examines the impact of shared information technology resources on firm performance. Also, a measurement scale for these resources is developed and preliminarily validated.
Social problems, such unsustainable development, can be too large for any one organization to tackle alone so are increasingly being addressed through cross-sector multi-organizational collaborations. One of the approaches being taken is formulating and implementing a collective (alternatively named collaborative) strategy. Despite the increasing usage of collaborative strategic management in practice, there is relatively little literature on this approach, particularly when considering the implementation of the collaborative strategy. This paper builds on existing interorganizational collaboration theory and organizational strategy implementation theory to determine: 1) a conceptual process model of collaborative strategic management; and 2) factors which affect each phase of cross-sectoral social-oriented collaborative strategic managment.
Working in collaborative and dispersed (C&D) settings is now common for project teams, especially for those active in multinational companies or in international contexts. The concept of "collaborative maturity" has recently been proposed by various authors in order to identify and measure the competence of a firm working in C&D mode. Many models of collaborative maturity have been proposed, reflecting the increasing importance of this area of research. However, the existing literature is spread among multiple journals in various fields of research. For a better understanding of collaborative maturity and how it is measured, a thorough literature review is conducted and an extension of existing research is proposed. This will serve as the theoretical background for future empirical research. The results should be useful for project managers and academicians with an interest in C&D projects.
Despite the prevalence of formal and informal standards for employee attire, research on its role is limited. Social psychological theories suggest that work attire can be a meaningful, expressive symbol associated with one's occupational identity. Organizational theories suggest that work attire can affect both individual and organizational outcomes. Bridging these perspectives, this study considers work attire's potential to influence micro and macro organizational dynamics. A framework of the dimensions influencing factors and outcomes of work dress is used to assess the results of a poll of members of the Canadian Forces, an organization whose work attire is highly conspicuous and rigidly homogeneous. Though a slight majority of participants responded that their uniform did not impact their operational focus, comments indicate both organizational influences and individual concerns with specific attributes of attire. Attitudes toward work attire may be indicative of broader issues of organizational identity.
This paper identifies some of the challenges facing expatriates using an autoethnographic account of situations experienced by the author during her first year of work at a financial services company in Hong Kong. These experiences reveal an erratic business world of apparent nonsense and uncertainty, incomprehensible to an outsider. The challenges facing expatriates stem from the stress and anxiety affecting their work, family and social interactions within the foreign culture. Success in the new environment is dependent on the expatriate's ability to adjust to the new culture. An overview of the current research on the expatriate experience is provided to help the reader make sense of the autoethnographic situations.
Available data indicate that economic conditions, exports performance and foreign direct investment from Malaysia increased significantly in the 1990s. Existing literature on the internationalization of firms is based on the study of firms from developed countries and does not directly apply to the case of firms based in developing economies, and Malaysia particularly. Based on this phenomenon, this study attempts to examine the process of internationalization among Malaysian firms into the foreign markets and compare the internationalization process of Malaysian firms with other developed countries. This study will contribute to the knowledge gap with empirical data from rapidly internationalizing firms, in respect of the Malaysian firms' experiences, organizational learning and capability creation that will offer fruitful approaches to understanding the dynamic of firms' expansion. The resulting model could assist policy makers to improve existed support programs for businesses to overcome barriers and enhance performance in internationalization process.
This paper will provide insight into the personality dimensions that can be attributed to performing arts awards, and thus generate a scale to measure these dimensions. This area of work rests upon the idea that there is self-concept congruency between a viewer and product or service, and that there are instances where attributes of a human nature can be, in fact, attributed to them. The study will look particularly at a mixed sample of televised performing arts awards shows (The Academy Awards, The Prime-Time Emmy Awards, The Tony Awards, The Grammy Awards and The Golden Globe Awards) and the various motivations and interests of viewers to watch, or not watch, such shows. Based upon its position in the literature and its intended contribution, this study will propose a four-step scale development process.
The hospitality industry relies on front-line staff members to provide high quality service experiences to encourage repeat business. Unlike the manufacturing industry that separates the production of goods from the delivery to customers, professionals in the hospitality industry realize that customers evaluate their "product" through perceived service quality levels (Ottenbacher & Howley, 2005). Although types of service may differ, industry operators and researchers agree that both customer satisfaction and service quality are critical prerequisites for customer retention (Cronin & Taylor, 1992). Consistent service quality demands a workforce with strong emotional display management skills; however, displays of unfelt feelings, or "acting", can create intense emotional strain for service providers. This paper will examine the emotional labour pressures experienced by service workers and outline theoretical mitigating influences provided by high performance work practices (HPWP). Links will be drawn between decreased employee turnover, increased customer satisfaction and customer retention.
Academic research into codes of ethics has given us valuable information on the subject but has failed to provide an all-encompassing understanding of the contents of actual codes. This paper looks at what is presently known about this subject, presents a conceptual model that integrates the different elements that go into a code of ethics, describes the dynamics that explains why each company's code of ethics has a distinct content, and presents preliminary results obtained after having analyzed a cross-section of the code of ethics of member companies of the Ethics and Compliance Officer Association.
Labour shortages are imminent in a variety of different industries, particularly those that require high levels of skills. Organizations will need to plan for these shortages as many of the solutions will have fairly long lead times before an impact is felt. One area from which short-term gains may be achieved is the reduction of voluntary turnover, particularly the loss of productive employees. An area with potential for longer-term success in combating the labour shortage is in restructuring. Through restructuring, organizations can redesign the work processes so that when employees do leave, the position will have to be reworked and a replacement may not be needed. The organization will be shrinking in headcount, but it will remain as productive as it was before downsizing due to efficiencies gained; it will have successfully navigated "involuntary downsizing". The purpose of this paper is to develop the concept of involuntary downsizing" by expanding the definition of downsizing to include situations in which organizations are competing in diminishing labour markets. Similar to the current concept of downsizing, organizations will need to accomplish more, with fewer resources; however, the cause of the downsizing and the solutions that are available will be different.
In the typology of harassment and aggression in the workplace, workplace incivility is situated as a non-aggressive, low intensity form of deviant behaviour with an uncertain intent to cause harm. The importance of incivility to organizational theory and human resource management is that it may have a negative effect on organizational outcomes and more importantly it may be a precursor for more overt forms of workplace violence. Two potential influences on the effects of incivility are personality and workplace context; the latter of these two has not been sufficiently explored in the literature. This paper will take one step towards addressing this gap by examining the ways in which incivility is moderated in the context of military organizations. The result of this contextual examination of incivility will be a proposal that incivility may have a positive effect through the development of coping strategies for stressful situations encountered by armed forces.
The paper addresses important issues regarding how consumers' purchase decisions in a product category are influenced by market mix variables in other categories. We propose a structural analysis of multi-category purchase decisions, where we simultaneously model and estimate consumers' purchase incidence, brand choice and quantity choice decisions across multiple product categories. Addtionally, we study the role played by umbrella brands in influencing the decision made by consumers. We propose a structural model where all the three decisions are derived from the consumer's global utility maximization. Such structural analysis is important from the perspective of (i) a retailer whose objective is to maximize profits over all product categories, and (ii) a manufacturer whose objective is to maximize profits over its entire product line. Our analysis highlights the importance of studying consumers' purchase decisions in a multi-category context which can not be addressed by studying each category in seclusion.
One problem faced by a profit center loyalty reward program firm is that of determining the percentage of the points (the so called "breakage factor or "breakage rate" in loyalty programs industry) accumulated each year that end up not ever being redeemed by members, and that should therefore, be recognized as revenue in the establishment of the periodical financial statements. A higher breakage rate will contribute to increase the net income and profitability on the financial statements. This in turn would offer a competitive advantage to a firm in attracting and pricing new third party partners, developing company strategic plans, and managing the overall yearly reward capacity. In this paper, we propose a quantitative methodology for determining the breakage rate in Loyalty Reward Programs (LRP). The proposed methodology is a simulation-based approach in which the accumulation and redemption of "points" is modeled as a stochastic process. An application of the approach to a real-life context is discussed.
Identification of effective and cost-efficient compensation practices for recruiting and retaining expatriate employees is becoming increasingly important in today's global labor market. This paper proposes a study to investigate perceptions of fair compensation for expatriate employment using the tenets of equity theory. Participants will specify an "equitable" monetary bonus for hypothetical overseas assignments of different lengths and locations. Relying on Konopaske's and Werner's (2002) propositions, the author predicts the following: 1) Short-term overseas assignments will require a larger "foreign service premium" (monetary bonus) than domestic relocation, 2) Long-term expatriate assignments will require a larger premium than short-term or domestic relocation, and 3) Relocation to a developing country will require a larger premium than relocation to an advanced industrialized nation or to a domestic location. A methodology and data analysis strategy are described.