The myth of the nation: Historiography of New Zealand architecture since 1907

This paper considers the relationship between the recent historiography (of the last quarter century) of “New Zealand architecture” and the historical notion of “New Zealand-ness” invoked in contemporary architecture. It argues that a more recent programmatic uptake of post-War discussions on national identity and regional specificity has fed the tendencies of practicing architects to defer to history in rhetorical defences of their work: the beach-side mansion as a contemporary expression of the 1950s bach; a formal modernism divorced from the social discourse adherent to the historical moment that it “restates”; and so on. The paper will consider instances in the historiography of New Zealand architecture where historians have compounded, consciously or accidentally, a problem that is systemic to the uses made by architects of historical knowledge (in the most general examples), identifying the difficulties of relying upon the tentative conclusions of an under-studied field in developing principles of contemporary architectural practice under the banners of New Zealand-ness, regionalism, or localism, or with reference to icons of New Zealand architectural history. At the heart of this paper is a reflection on historiographical responsibility in presenting knowledge of a national past to an audience that is eager to transform that knowledge into principles of contemporary production. What, the paper asks, is the historical basis for speaking of a New Zealand architecture? Can we speak of a national history of architecture distinct from a regional history, or from an international history of architecture?

Public Intellectuals, Book Culture and Civil Society

Introduction: the rise and rise of the public intellectual My starting point is the remarkable rise to prominence of public intellectuals – and talk about public intellectuals – over the last decade in Australia. Since 1997, especially, this has occurred around Indigenous questions with the result that issues such as the stolen generations, genocide, the apology and reconciliation have also gained new prominence. This is undeniably a good thing. New ways of thinking about history and the nation and new kinds of public ethical discourse have been put into circulation. History as battleground is preferable to the great Australian silence. And yet – my starting point is also the ambivalent effects and meanings of these recent developments, not least the way that the debates have centred so much around the figure of the 'public intellectual', the way that certain kinds of intellectuals and intellectual discourse have come to dominate the mainstream representation of the issues.

Are country and culture values interchangeable? A case example using occupational stress and coping

Cross cultural research in occupational stress and coping has produced a wealth of knowledge. Although advances have been made, there are still problems to be solved. One of these problems is the confusion generated in the literature by researchers claiming that nation or country represents cultural values, and the use of the two terms interchangeably. It remains unclear whether this practice is correct. The present article reported on this by using 511 full-time employees from Australia, Singapore and Sri Lanka to study occupational stress and coping. Results revealed that cultural value paradigms (i.e. Individualism–Collectivism) were distributed across the three nations such that over 60% of participants were either high or low in both I–C paradigms. The findings also indicated that the relationship between cultural value paradigm and country impacted on stress and coping differently. The study shows that significant differences exist within countries as well as between countries, such that any attempt to equate ‘culture’ with ‘country’ becomes problematic. Therefore these findings established that country or nation is not the same as culture values and cannot be used interchangeably.

Leadership in the Asian Century: Lessons from GLOBE

In this paper, based on the results of the Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) 61-nation study of culture and leadership, we present findings related to three ‘clusters’ of countries. These clusters are: (1) the ‘Anglo culture’ cluster (Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, white South Africa, UK, and USA), the ‘Southern Asia’ cluster (Iran, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines), and the ‘Confucian Asia’ cluster (China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan). Data from the GLOBE study, reporting middle managers’ perceptions of societal practices and values, and of the factors that facilitate and inhibit effective leadership will be compared across the three clusters. Results demonstrate that, despite differences in cultures, especially cultural values, perceptions of effective leadership vary substantially only in respect of the extent that participation is seen to facilitate leadership. In the Anglo cluster, participative leadership is seen as much more facilitative of leadership, than in either of the Asian clusters. Results are discussed in terms of effective leadership styles suitable for management in the twenty-first century, where Asian economies are likely to play a more dominant role than they have in recent history.

The effect of organisational culture perceptions on the relationship between budgetary participation and managerial job-related outcomes

The impact of managers' perceptions of their organizational culture (OC) on the relationship between budgetary participation (BP) and managerial job-related outcomes, operationalized as managerial performance and job-related tension (JRT) is examined. Data supported predictions that increasing BP would lower JRT for managers perceiving a high emphasis on innovation within their OC, regardless of their perceptions of an emphasis on attention to detail. When managers perceived low innovation, however, their perception of level of attention to detail had a significant effect on the relationship between BP and JRT.

The People's Stage in Imperial Germany: Social Democracy and Culture 1890-1914

The clash between German Social Democracy--the party, intellectuals and workers--and the German Imperial State was played out in the Freie Volksbahne (Free People's Theatre) founded by intellectuals to energise working class political awareness of drama with a political and social cutting edge. It fell foul of state censorship, lost its bite, yet prospered.