Intra-organisational marketing culture and market orientation: a case study of the implementation of the marketing concept in a public library

The measurement of both marketing culture and behaviour provides the opportunity to gain more insight into the overall market focus of organisations. This article seeks to determine the market orientation and marketing culture of all staff within organisations, to ascertain to what extent other members of an organisation support or create barriers to the successful implementation of the marketing concept. This paper will provide a brief overview of the existing literature in the field of market orientation and marketing culture. After detailing the research design and methodology, a summary developed from 11 focus group sessions - consisting of all staff in one public library service in Victoria, Australia - is presented. The findings indicate that while all areas within this organisation are committed to marketing, there are various interpretations of marketing and how it should be implemented. In addition, the research finds a number of factors that could be instrumental in the successful implementation of the marketing concept in public libraries.

Conceptualising industrial relations in the "risk society"

This paper contrasts the characteristics of different types of modernities, noting the present transition occurring between its simple and reflexive manifestations. It then demonstrates how mainstream industrial relations theories have long been framed by a collectivist 'risk insurance principle '. In combining these two observations the argument is made that theories built around institutional dependencies that rely on the evidence or assumption ofoperable risk insurance principles and collective guardianships of workplace well being make less sense in a world of emerging personal narratives ofchoice and dependency that centre around individuals taking personal responsibility for avoiding or diminishing the risks of their engagement with uncertain labour markets. The discussion concludes by setting out the social and epistemological conditions under which future industrial relations theorising might beframed so as to accommodate these emerging conditions in a manner that is both realistic and relevant.

Civilisation, culture and the hybrid self in the work of Robert Ezra Park

Contemporary discussions on hybridity in cultural and ethnic studies have overlooked the work of the Chicago sociologist Robert E. Park. Park's idea of the “marginal man” and his work on cultural and racial hybridity can shed further light on the construction and representation of the hybrid self. The contribution that Park has made to a social theory of hybridity has been overshadowed by research conducted within post-colonial and cultural studies. I do not suggest that recent conceptualisations of hybridity are inadequate; rather that Park has something to contribute to contemporary accounts and in some cases anticipates some of the themes and issues surrounding the concept of hybridity. The following examination connects Park's work on hybridity with ideas such as civilisation, culture and modernity and argues that a mild form of primitivism underlines his notion of the “marginal man”.

Culture and leadership in educational administration: a historical study of what was and what might have been

This paper examines the consequences for school leadership of the abandonment of Waller's insights into the school as a social organism and the embracing of the cult of efficiency as the foundation for the analysis of school culture. Tracing the separation of conception from execution, leadership from teaching, administration from education through the cult of professionalism and functionalist sociology, the paper argues that a more appropriate basis for understanding both leadership and the culture of the school can be derived from ethnographies of schooling which show the complex interactions of internal and external cultures in the construction of leadership and the culture of the school.

Families divided : culture and control in small family business

In this article, we explore the dynamics of control, compliance and resistance using two case studies where ‘family’ has symbolic, material and ideological significance. While the ‘family’ metaphor is often invoked to suggest a normative unity and integration in large organizations, we investigate the use of shared understandings of divisions (Parker 1995) and difference, as well as unity and similarity, in constituting organizational culture in two small family-owned firms. Diverging from mainstream family business research, we adopt a critical and interpretative approach that incorporates employee perspectives and explores how forms of control and resistance need to be understood in relation to their local contexts. We also argue that organization studies could benefit from revisiting progressive assumptions that equate developments in forms of organization with forms of organizational control.

Towards a new policy environment for indigenous people, culture and knowledge in Australian higher education: an examination of issues and possibilities for institutional and government policy

The purpose of this discussion paper is to stimulate an examination of critical issues in Indigenous higher education and encourage new possibilities to be explored. It invites a wide sharing of views. The paper
does not attempt to trace the full history of the policies for Indigenous higher education and the successes and failures. The focus instead is on the major contemporary issues and the key questions that might be considered by the conference participants.

Multiculturalism in arts education: engaging schools in effective and authentic pedagogies

Serious questions have been raised by arts educators and community members about the effectiveness of multiculturalism that is usually enacted in Australian school settings by multi-arts festivals and related classroom activities. By exploring resources available to teachers, snapshots can be created of school practices that purport to be multicultural. Often these are only thematically integrated interdisciplinary exercises that do not reflect the complexity and diversity of true multiculturalism. Australia has for some time positioned itself as part of the global community. How this has been enacted in schools' multi-arts practices demonstrates our changing understanding of multiculturalism. The recent Australian National Review of School Music Education (2005) exhorts us to recognise cultural diversity, encourage participation and engagement and form partnerships, connections and networks. To achieve this we need to demonstrate authentic practice. Tucker (1992) has created an authenticity checklist that argues that materials should be prepared with the involvement of someone within the culture and include cultural context. Without this, we risk stripping the arts of much of its meaning. The authors contend that it should be possible in 21st century Australia to create authentic, meaningful arts education practices in schools given the rich cultural mosaic that forms our contemporary society.

Fostering information security culture in small and medium size enterprises: an interpretive study in Australia

By having an effective organisational information security culture where employees intuitively protect corporate information assets, small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) could improve information security. However, previous research has largely overlooked the development of such a culture for SMEs, and the national context in which SMEs operate. The paper explores this topic and provides key findings from an interpretive Australian study based on a literature review, two focus groups and three case studies. A holistic framework is provided for fostering an information security culture in SMEs in a national setting. The paper discusses key managerial challenges for SMEs attempting to develop such a culture. The main findings suggest that Australian SME owners do not provide sufficient support for information security due to insufficient awareness of its importance and may also be affected by national attitudes to risk. The paper concludes that Australian SME owners may benefit from adopting a risk-based approach to information security and should be educated about the potential strategic role of information technology and information security. The paper also identifies the value and difficulty of promoting a behavioural and learning approach to information security to complement traditional technological and managerial approaches. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.