Negotiating queer and religious identities in higher education: queering ‘progression’ in the ‘university experience’

This article addresses the negotiation of ‘queer religious’ student identities in UK higher education. The ‘university experience’ has generally been characterised as a period of intense transformation and self-exploration, with complex and overlapping personal and social influences significantly shaping educational spaces, subjects and subjectivities. Engaging with ideas about progressive tolerance and becoming, often contrasted against ‘backwards’ religious homophobia as a sentiment/space/subject ‘outside’ education, this article follows the experiences and expectations of queer Christian students. In asking whether notions of ‘queering higher education’ (Rumens 2014 Rumens, N. 2014. “Queer Business: Towards Queering the Purpose of the Business School.” In The Entrepreneurial University: Public Engagements, Intersecting Impacts, edited by Y. Taylor, 82–104. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.) ‘fit’ with queer-identifying religious youth, the article explores how educational experiences are narrated and made sense of as ‘progressive’. Educational transitions allow (some) sexual-religious subjects to negotiate identities more freely, albeit with ongoing constraints. Yet perceptions of what, where and who is deemed ‘progressive’ and ‘backwards’ with regard to sexuality and religion need to be met with caution, where the ‘university experience’ can shape and shake sexual-religious identity.

Reputation Performance: a portfolio selection approach

This paper introduces a normative view on corporate reputation management; an algorithmic model for reputation-driven strategic decision making is proposed and corporate reputation is conceptualized as influenced by a selection among organizational priorities. A portfolio-based approach is put forward; we draw on the foundations of portfolio theory and we create a portfolio-based reputation management model where reputation components and priorities are weighted by decision makers and shape organizational change in an attempt to formulate a corporate reputation strategy. The rationale of this paper is based on the foundational consideration of organizations as choosing the optimal strategy by seeking to maximize performance on corporate reputation capital while maintaining organizational stability and minimizing organizational risk.

Media amplification of brand crisis and its affect on brand trust

This paper explores the ways in which consumers’ brand trust during a brand crisis is affected through direct experience versus when it is amplified through mass media. By using case-study methodology, our findings reveal that generalised public images of a product crisis initiate a public perception of risk, which provides more negative effects on brand trust than the actual consumers’ experience does. We introduce the media as a third partner influencing the trust relationship between consumers and brands, and offer suggestions for restoring and preserving customers’ brand trust.

A process-based Knowledge Management framework supported by ARIS Enterprise Modelling architecture

Knowledge and its management have been respectively accepted as a critical resource and a core business competency. Despite that literature proves the existence of a gap between the theoretical considerations of Knowledge Management (KM) and their efficient application. Such lacking, we argue, derives from the missing link between a framework of Knowledge Management and the particular methods and guidelines of its implementation. In an attempt to bridge this gap, an original, process- based holistic Knowledge Management framework is proposed, aiming to address the problem of knowledge management application and performance by utilising a set of well accepted Enterprise Modelling (EM) methods and tools.

Introducing Corporate Reputation Continuity to Support Organizational Resilience Against Crises

As Corporate Reputation (CR) evolves into an important asset for organizations, crises and disasters stand as threats to the preservation of the reputation capital since they usually result to negative projections to their audiences and to problematic evaluations by their stakeholders. Viewing CR as the accumulated trust and positive evaluations of the stakeholders, this paper proposes a conceptual and normative framework for Reputation Continuity, which enhances the ability of organizations to preserve their reputation, instead of working for its recovery in the post-crisis period. In our approach, we propose a process of maintaining trusted links, instead of restoring them and establishing a reputation resilient organization, instead of one struggling to recover from reputation losses, after the crisis has emerged. Working closely with stakeholders during the crisis, injecting a sense of normality continuity through effective leadership and mitigating image problems are seen as critical concerns, alongside a set of managerial practices to be followed. Ultimately, it is argued that, the value-based and strategically integrated view of Business Continuity must be enhanced and supported by Reputation Continuity activities.

Final Evaluation of the Heart of Teesdale Landscape Partnership

A report on behalf of Durham County Council to the Heritage Lottery Funded in relation to the £2.7m Heart of Teesdale Landscape Partnership. The evaluation provides an independent assessment of what the Partnership has delivered (its outputs), what the benefits (outcomes) have been and what lasting impact it will have made (its legacy) for natural and cultural heritage and for local communities and visitors. This Report also considers what may not have worked so well and the lessons that may be drawn for the future.

Que(e)rying the Closet in Diversity Management: "Coming-Out" as an Authentic (and Successful) LGBT Employee

This paper will "que(e)ry" "coming-out" as constructed by LGBT-diversity experts to advance our understanding of the relation between the social justice and business case for equality, diversity, and inclusion.

What kind of expertise is needed for low energy construction

The construction industry is responsible for 40% of European Union (EU) end-use emissions but addressing this is problematic, as evident from the performance gap between design intention and on-site energy performance. There is a lack of the expertise needed for low energy construction (LEC) in the UK as the complex work processes involved require ‘energy literacy’ of all construction occupations, high qualification levels, broad occupational profiles, integrated teamworking, and good communication . This research identifies the obstacles to meeting these requirements, the nature of the expertise needed to break down occupational divisions and bridge those interfaces where the main heat losses occur, and the transition pathway implied. Obstacles include a decline in the level, breadth and quality of construction vocational education and training (VET), the lack of a learning infrastructure on sites, and a fragmented employment structure. To overcome these and develop enhanced understanding of LEC requires a transformation of the existing structure of VET provision and construction employment and a new curriculum based on a broader concept of agency and backed by rigorous enforcement of standards. This can be achieved through a radical transition pathway rather than market-based solutions to a low carbon future for the construction sector.

The signalling effect of eco-labels in modern coastal tourism

As the demand for environmentally sustainable tourism grows, eco-labels are becoming increasingly popular as a signal of environmental quality. However, the existence of a causal link between awarding a seaside eco-label and the increase in tourism flows is still under discussion in the literature. In this article, we gauge the signalling impact of a specific eco-label, the Blue Flag award, using detailed data on tourism flows to seaside Italian destinations during the period 2008-2012. We adopt a recent econometric modelling strategy - the synthetic control method - in shaping estimation results and testing the sensitivity and robustness of our results. We find that being awarded the Blue Flag increases the flow of domestic tourists for up to three seasons after assignment. However, we find no effect for the flow of international tourists. Investigating the mechanisms driving the results, we find that the award of a Blue Flag only positively affects the flow of domestic tourists when it is used as a driver of organisation, coordination and integrated management of the tourism supply.