The Development of Corporate Identity: A Political Perspective

A corporate identity denotes a set of attributes that senior managers ascribe to their organization. It is therefore an organizational identity articulated by a powerful interest group. It can constitute a claim which serves inter alia to justify the authority vested in top managers and to further their interests. The academic literature on organizational identity, and on corporate identity in particular, pays little attention to these political considerations. It focuses in an apolitical manner on shared meanings when corporate identity works, or on cognitive dissonance when it breaks down. In response to this analytical void, we develop a political analysis of corporate identity and its development, using as illustration a longitudinal study of successive changes in the corporate identity of a Brazilian telecommunications company. This suggests a cyclical model in which corporate identity definition and redefinition involve power relations, resource mobilization and struggles for legitimacy. © Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2007.

Walking the Tightrope: Using Power and Authority in Child Welfare Supervision

Recognizing the importance of understanding the way in which supervisors in child welfare perceive their administrative responsibilities and use of power and authority, an exploratory study was conducted. Supervisors in child welfare agencies in urban and rural settings participated in focus groups and discussed the impact of macro and micro factors on their performance. Policy changes, including using new approaches to child welfare, and organizational culture had a major affect on the way they offered supervision. At the micro level, their use of power was related to elements in their relationships with frontline workers and their own professional development. Implications for child welfare practice and for new and experienced supervisors are presented.

Development and validation of a rapid multiplex ELISA for pyrrolizidine alkaloids and their N-oxides in honey and feed Rapid Detection in Food and Feed

Pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) are a group of plant secondary metabolites with carcinogenic and hepatotoxic properties. When PA-producing plants contaminate crops, toxins can be transferred through the food chain and cause illness in humans and animals, most notably hepatic veno-occlusive disease. Honey has been identified as a direct risk of human exposure. The European Food Safety Authority has recently identified four groups of PAs that are of particular importance for food and feed: senecionine-type, lycopsamine-type, heliotrine-type and monocrotaline-type. Liquid or gas chromatography methods are currently used to detect PAs but there are no rapid screening assays available commercially. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop a rapid multiplex ELISA test for the representatives of three groups of alkaloids (senecionine, lycopsamine and heliotrine types) that would be used as a risk-management tool for the screening of these toxic compounds in food and feed. The method was validated for honey and feed matrices and was demonstrated to have a detection capability less than 25 µg/kg for jacobine, lycopsamine, heliotrine and senecionine. The zinc reduction step introduced to the extraction procedure allows for the additional detection of the presence of N-oxides of PAs. This first multiplex immunoassay for PA detection with N-oxide reduction can be used for the simultaneous screening of 21 samples for >12 PA analytes. Honey samples (n?=?146) from various origins were analysed for PA determination. Six samples were determined to contain measurable PAs >25 µg/kg by ELISA which correlated to >10 µg/kg by LC-MS/MS.

Examining Participatory Governance in a Devolving UK: insights from national parks policy development in Northern Ireland

This paper provides a contemporary examination of policy making and participatory practice in the context of devolving governance in the UK. The paper takes Northern Ireland as its focus and is particularly timely considering the context of devolved governance, the ongoing transition from conflict to relative peace and the potential for rejuvenating democracy through participatory
governance. The paper concentrates on one particular policy process, namely the attempted designation of a national park in the Mournes Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. A thematic analysis of qualitative data is drawn upon to analyse the structural factors that framed the policymaking process, in particular the role of power in determining how consultation processes were 2 initiated, designed and undertaken. Using Lukes’ model) as an analytical framework, power is shown to manifest at multiple levels within the policy-making process to influence policy outcomes. The paper reveals how the persistence of a top-down approach to policy development combined with a highly parochial political outlook undermined attempts to designate a Mourne National Park. The paper concludes that, given the immaturity of recently devolved government in
Northern Ireland, in this instance, the democratising intentions of devolved governance have not been met. This has implications for Northern Ireland’s recent reform of public administration which devolves certain planning powers to local authority level and the management of the internationally significant Mournes landscape.