O balanço social como estratégia de fortalecimento das práticas de responsabilidade socioambiental

A sociedade de hoje, não se contenta mais em cobrar das Organizações apenas o triângulo consagrado que trata especificamente da qualidade, custo e prazo. Consciente de seu papel no mundo globalizado, ela exige o envolvimento e o comprometimento dessas Organizações com as questões sociais e ambientais. Neste contexto, faz-se necessário investir na preservação da natureza, na sua relação com a sociedade e no estreito relacionamento com os envolvidos direta e indiretamente nesta difícil empreitada. Em respostas a essas demandas, a ciência contábil, frente às exigências deste mercado globalizado e em lugar do modelo gestão corporativa utilizado até recentemente, que tratava apenas dos resultados econômicos, criou o Balanço Social. Como instrumento estratégico de desenvolvimento corporativo, o Balanço Social permite que a sociedade visualize os resultados de seu comprometimento com o futuro da humanidade. Quem não procura se adaptar às novas exigências da sociedade global, tende ao fracasso. Esta pesquisa tem como agente principal apresentar se as empresas no Brasil aplicam o conceito de Responsabilidade Social em suas atividades, propondo a cidadania de forma séria e responsável. Foram observados os dados divulgados pela Petrobras, - Petróleo Brasileiro SA, Vale e Gerdau S.A,, descrevendo informações entre seus demonstrativos e relatórios com a aplicação a partir dos propostos pelo Instituto ETHOS. Foi investigado o quanto estas empresas atendem aos quesitos propostos e, com base nos resultados obtidos, indicar, o nível de seriedade que estas companhias praticam a questão. A preferência pelas empresas supracitadas como objeto de pesquisa se dá pela posição de destaque no cenário econômico nacional e mundial; por sua atuação em setores considerados de alto nível de degradação e consumo de recursos naturais; e pelo alto impacto social gerado pela organização no local onde está introduzida. Os resultados mostram que as empresas começam a visualizar as questões socioambientais, verifica-se esta informação devido aos montantes absolutos investidos, todavia esta preocupação não atingiu a idéia principal deste conceito de responsabilidade social, ao atender interesses estratégicos superficiais de promoção e auto-imagem.

Better than my pride is your misfortune: the impact of schadenfreude on decision-making

Investigações anteriores relacionadas ao schadenfreude concentraram-se nos fatores que provocam o prazer no infortúnio do outro. A presente pesquisa tem como objetivo investigar o impacto do schadenfreude na tomada de decisão. Dois estudos (um em laboratório e uma em campo) abordam o impacto do schadenfreude em decisões realizadas no passado e no futuro em eventos desportivos. O primeiro estudo confronta sentimentos de orgulho em uma vitória do time favorito contra os sentimentos de perda schadenfreude de uma equipe rival. Os resultados mostraram que as pessoas preferiam enviar notícias sobre a vitória da equipe favorita (orgulho) ao invés da perda do time rival (schadenfreude) quando as diferenças de pontuação no jogo eram pequenas (por exemplo: time favorito 1 x 0 outro, contra, o time rival 0 x 1 favorito). No entanto, as pessoas eram mais propensas a fazer a escolha schadenfreude (por exemplo, escolher o envio de uma notícia sobre a derrota de um time rival) quando o resultado era alto (por exemplo, time favorito 5 x 0 rival, contra, time rival 0 x 5 favorito). O segundo estudo no campo examina como schadenfreude influencia a vontade de apostar contra um time rival. Para responder a esse problema, a preferência da equipe do participante é avaliada (Participantes que apoiam time alvo contra os que apoiam o rival). Uma manipulação de louvor é adicionada, tal que os consumidores vejam ou não um elogio à equipe alvo enquanto eles estão fazendo uma aposta sobre o resultado da partida. Os resultados mostram que os torcedores do time alvo não foram influenciados pela manipulação de louvor. No entanto, torcedores do time rival aumentaram sua probabilidade de aposta contra o time alvo (ou seja, mostraram um comportamento que envolve o schadenfreude) quando esta foi elogiada antes do jogo.

Avenues to success : electoral strategies and ambition in the Brazilian chamber of deputies

In the second consecutive election for the Brazilian Chamber ofDeputies, the majority of incumbents (75% in 1998 and again 75% in 2002) decided to run for reelection and at least 70% ofthem in both elections were successful, suggesting thus it would be incorrect to ignore static ambition as the main target of Brazilian legislators. It also raises doubts about the assertion that incumbents use their posts to pursue their post-Iegislative careers. However, this number also suggests that not alIlegislators seek reelection, indicating that it is also incorrect to assume alI of them are driven by similar motivations. In their attempts at career survival, incumbents may also run for higher offices (Senator, Governor, Vicegovernor). A minority still, may run for state leveI offices (regressive ambition).Given that static and progressive ambition are the two main types of career choice in Brazil, we focus on the factors that influence the career decision and electoral success of those who choose to run for reelection and those who choose to run for higher-level offices, i.e. senator and governor. We use data recently colIected from the 2002 elections.

The failure of early-stage technology startups in Brazil: a study about the contributing factors to the early-death of startups between 2009 and 2014 in Southeastern Brazil

This research aimed to find out which are the main factors that lead technology startups to fail. The study focused on companies located in the Southeast region of Brazil that operated between 2009 and 2014. In the beginning, a review of the literature was done to have a better understanding of basic concepts of entrepreneurship as well as modern techniques for developing entrepreneurship. Furthermore, an analysis of the entrepreneurial scenario in Brazil, with a focus on the Southeast, was also done. After this phase, the qualitative study began, in which 24 specialists from startups were interviewed and asked about which factors were crucial in leading a technology startup to fail. After analyzing the results, four main factors were identified and these factors were validated through a quantitative survey. A questionnaire was then formulated based on the answers from the respondents and distributed to founders and executives of startups, which both failed and succeeded. The questionnaire was answered by 56 companies and their answers were treated with the factor analysis statistical method to check the validity of the questionnaire. Finally, the logistical regression method was used to know the extent to which the factors led to the startups’ failure. In the end, the results obtained suggest that the most significant factor that leads technology startups in southeastern Brazil to fail are problems with interpersonal relationship between partners or investors.

Oil price shocks and policy implications the emergence of U.S. tight oil production: a case study

How have shocks to supply and demand affected global oil prices; and what are key policy implications following the resurgence of oil production in the United States? Highlights: − The recent collapse in global oil prices was dominated by oversupply. − The future of tight oil in the United States is vulnerable to obstacles beyond oil prices. − Opinions on tight oil from the Top 25 think tank organizations are considered. Global oil prices have fallen more than fifty percent since mid-2014. While price corrections in the global oil markets resulted from multiple factors over the past twelve months, surging tight oil production from the United States was a key driver. Tight oil is considered an unconventional or transitional oil source due to its location in oil-bearing shale instead of conventional oil reservoirs. These qualities make tight oil production fundamentally different from regular crude, posing unique challenges. This case study examines these challenges and explores how shocks to supply and demand affect global oil prices while identifying important policy considerations. Analysis of existing evidence is supported by expert opinions from more than one hundred scholars from top-tier think tank organizations. Finally, implications for United States tight oil production as well as global ramifications of a new low price environment are explored.

On paternalistic leadership fit: exploring cross-cultural endorsement, leader-follower fit, and the boundary role of organizational culture

Although cross-cultural leadership research has thrived in international business literature, little attention has been devoted to understanding the effectiveness of non-western theories beyond their original contexts. The purpose of this study is to examine the cross-cultural endorsement of paternalistic leadership, an emerging non-western leadership theory, using data from GLOBE project. Using multigroup confirmatory factor analyses we found measurement equivalence of a scale derived from GLOBE’s data, which enabled us to compare the endorsement of paternalistic leadership dimensions across 10 cultural clusters and 55 societies. Our study revealed that there are significant differences in the importance societies give to each dimension, suggesting that paternalism as leadership style is not universally nor homogeneously endorsed. Furthermore, results suggest that different patterns of endorsement of each of these dimensions give rise to idiosyncratic shades of paternalistic leadership across societies. Implications for theory and future research on international business are discussed.

Impact assessment and quality analysis of corporate social responsability (CSR) programs of mining companies and their contribution to sustainable development in the communities they operate: case study Tenke Fungurume Mining SA in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

Purpose – This case study presents an impact assessment of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs of the TFM Company in order to understand how they contribute to the sustainable development of communities in areas in which they operate. Design/Methodology/Approach - Data for this study was collected using qualitative data methods that included semi-structured interviews and Focus Group Discussions most of them audio and video recorded. Documentary analysis and a field visit were also undertaken for the purpose of quality analysis of the CSR programs on the terrain. Data collected was analyzed using the Seven Questions to sustainability (7Qs) framework, an evaluation tool developed by the Mining, Minerals and Sustainable Development (MMSD) North America chapter. Content analysis method was on the other hand used to examine the interviews and FGDs of the study participants. Findings - Results shows that CSR programs of TFM SA do contribute to community development, as there have been notable changes in the communities’ living conditions. But whether they have contributed to sustainable development is not yet the case as programs that enhance the capacity of communities and other stakeholders to support these projects development beyond the implementation stage and the mines operation lifetime need to be considered and implemented. Originality/Value – In DRC, there is paucity of information of research studies that focus on impact assessment of CSR programs in general and specifically those of mining companies and their contribution to sustainable development of local communities. Many of the available studies cover issues of minerals and conflict or conflict minerals as mostly referred to. This study addressees this gap.

O desenvolvimento profissional docente e a participação colegiado no Atheneu Norte-Riograndense

To investigate the relationship that exists among the educational participation of the school board and the teacher's professional development, starting from the analysis teachers of a public institution who teaches daily in the city of Natal. We focused the possible relationships between the teacher's action and their professional development, which includes the participation of the School board, considered by us as a collective space. To accomplish this research we used Interviews (KAUFMANN, 1996; SILVA, 2002) to analyze the nine participants, who are teachers' of the school board, and their oral speeches, considered as main references of our study. While trying to understand the reasons that led the teachers to choose her/his educational profession, we noticed the difficulty of recognition of the job of lecturing as a profession. This fact comes as an obstacle to the perspective of the teachers' professional development. In what he/she refers to the forms of the teachers' participation in the board and their meanings, we noticed in first place that the feeling of it belongs one of the decisive factors it can be considered actively for the teacher to announce of the actions colegiadas. This for them to want and they believe that that is the best road for if they develop better while professionals and consequently to improve the situation of the school. In second place we noticed that the school board represents, a place of articulation of the equality among all the ones that form the school community. So, we tried to understand how they happened to the collective actions in the school, how the teachers presented them in spite of what they know, how a collective action should be presented in the elements of fragility of that process that inhibit the development of the overall action. Finally, we questioned the elements that would contribute to the educational professional development; we noticed that the teachers present the competence, the ethics and professional valorization, as factors that contributed at the present time to their educational professional development

A natureza da alma e o clinamen: ação e liberdade em Lucrécio

The concept of freedom and his presupposition, the free will or libera voluntas in Lucretius relies on the notion of clinamen (declination), an occasional and random motion of atoms, inaccessible to experience. It is endowed with a complex movement provided by spontaneity, without the need for mechanical causes. The action of perceiving (sensus) is selfconsciousness, according to which this will, illuminated by previous experiences (sensory, intellectual or emotional) of the soul, takes advantage of the freedom and own spontaneity of atomic motions to drive them to a perceived direction and chosen. On the other hand, if we consider that the declination has a predominant role for the acts of will, we are facing other problems and questions. There is always the choice of a determined action and, therefore, even if the individual is facing a need to act, is possible choose to do not continue finish this action. Thereby, the will is related to conditions that are originate, ultimately, from the images formed randomly in space and impress the soul: the simulacra of desire and pleasure. The declination itself is a very important notion in this research, in order to emphasize the relationship between the freedom and the kinetic of elements. The approach developed in this work had as main objective to investigate the philosophy of nature and the soul in Lucretius, their constituents and movement, as well as demonstrating how the notion of clinamen articulates with the concepts of image, desire and pleasure, proposing a possible interpretation for the declination as an indeterminate and ethical foundation of freedom

A questão do estilo na psicanálise lacaniana

Lacanian psychoanalysis has won a considerable space in brazilian university: a search for Lacan in the field of subject of the CAPES Thesis Bank shows 1.032 results! However the difference in the style of knowledge production and language usage is considerable between academic psychology and lacanian theory. The difficulty in reading and understanding Lacan is something pointed out by supporters and critics alike. In addition to that, his disciples choose many times to imitate his baroque, complex style, full of neologisms, causing perplexity in many unprepared audiences. What is the origin of such an enigmatic and polemic style of expression? How it became so widespread under the sign of repetition? And which are the consequences of this style to the communication, transmission and teaching of lacanian psychoanalysis? Through these questions it is our goal to contribute to the dialogue between lacanian psychoanalysis and the academy, to provide a better understanding of the causes of this style, analyzing the consequences it has to the transmission of psychoanalysis. We chose to perform a theoretical study, using authors that have treated Lacan s style and the history of psychoanalysis from a critical point of view, like Beividas (2000), Roustang (1987, 1988) and Gellner (1988), and also those that have defended and justified its legitimacy, like Glynos e Stavrakakis (2001), Fink (1997) and Souza (1985), using as well some works by Freud and Lacan. The study of these texts has led us to three main themes: 1) the difficulty of the lacanian text; 2) Lacan, heir of Freud; 3) consequences of the lacanian style. In the first one, we enumerate many different explanations and interpretations given by commentators about the difficulty and particularity of the lacanian discourse; in the second, we show how Lacan came to occupy the place of great idealization that was before destined to Freud, what made his style something to be taken as a model, to be imitated by disciples; in the third, we explore the way in which the concepts are treated in lacanian psychoanalysis, arguing that their multiple meanings point out that the final goal is not to build a clear and coherent theory, but to try to aim directly at the subject, to catch him

Ser-no-mundo com a criança portadora de câncer compreendendo a experiência de psicólogos nos serviços de oncologia pediátrica de Natal-RN

Cancer goes on to be a frightening disease by humanity, simetimes,it is considered as death, suffering and stigma synonym. Occurring at childhood, this meaning seems to acquire a more intense conotation, having in view of the perplexity and godliness feeling in the presence of the precocity of events, nearly always associated to the death. A psychologist co-existence with the cancer children is going acquiring, thus, a permeated sense by incognitas , fears and fantasy, which raised us the following question: how does the psychologist that answers children with cancer lives this experience? Therefore, the aim this research was to understand this co-existence experience. Our theoretical perspective comes from an existencial fenomenology and, more specifically, the Humanistic Approach and Martin Heidegger Existencial Ontology. The metodology is qualitative of phenomenological character. The access instrument to the experience was the narrative, such as purpose by Walter Benjamin. They were carried out nine semi-open interviews with psychologists who work on pediatric oncology services of Natal-RN city. Such interviews were recorded in cassette, transcripted and later, re-educated. These interviews were recorded, transcribed and later on edited with the help of the interviewee and turned into a text. The narrative comprehension was carried out on Heidegger Existencial Ontology, on dada exaustive reading and the clipping of indicative passages of experience sense of being psychologist on this area. The research suggests that the experience is oriented of clinic kowing-doing, being crossed by implications of key thematics which indicate the care as central ontologic element that orientates the way as these professionals come being in the world in association with the clientèle. Besides, the caring experience of these children acquire the sense of true living experience, since the cancer undoes the immortality illusion, launching the psychologist to his/her condition of being to the death and with that, calling him/her the authenticity. Is is only not dealt with to experience the anguish and the death imminence, but above all, re-meaning them in favour of a continual learning, of quality answering , besides other possibilities. Working with child cancer brings news perspectives and world views, making the psychologist a more human people and sensitive to the distracted needs. And we believe that, regardless of area which actuates, being psychologist is a particular way which choose to be citizen. Is is a project that will be delimited by society, history and culture and after all, by us like human being. Therefore, we understand that the results this research suggest the discussed thematic deepening on this intervention field in order to new sense possibilities can arise giving origin to other reflections about the clinical practice, the professional formation in Psychology and other possible developments

Micromorphologic assessment of CVD (chemical vapor deposition) and conventional diamond tips and their cutting effectiveness

The aim of this study was to compare the micromorphology of CVD diamond tips coupled to ultrasound with conventional high speed diamond tips after cavity preparations, and to measure the width and depth of the cavities obtained. Two hundred bovine teeth were divided into 20 subgroups. Each of the diamond tips (10 CVD and 10 conventional) were used to prepare 10 standardized cavities, using an apparatus that controlled the time (t: 27 s), speed (5.3 mm/s) and load (0.012 KGF) of the tip against the teeth during preparation. The unused and the used (after one, five and 10 preparations) tips were analyzed by scanning electronic microscopy. The images were randomly assessed by 3 examiners with regard to the presence or absence of micromorphologic alterations. Cavity measurements were made after visualization under a stereoscopic microscope. Cavity widths and depths were analyzed by the ANOVA Factorial test (p < 0.05). The CVD diamond tips presented less wear than the conventional tips after all the cavity preparations performed, but produced shallower cavities that were equivalent in width to those made by conventional tips after the fifth preparation. CVD diamond tips may be suggested as an alternative to conventional diamond tips due to their conservative preparation and greater longevity.

Caste in the swarming wasps: 'queenless' societies in highly social insects

Morphometric data for 30 species of swarming wasps (Vespidae: Polistinae: Epiponini) are presented, representing all currently recognized genera. Data are coded according to whether females that were shown by dissection to be egglayers are larger, similar, or smaller for each dimension than non-egglayers. These data are analysed in a phylogenetic framework with primitively social Polistes and Mischocyttarus as outgroups. Representative measurements are illustrated to show that most genera of Epiponini appear to have ancestry in a lineage that has no queen caste comparable with either the primitively social outgroups, or the more derived species of the tribe. This analysis indicates that a conspiracy of workers that operates without a queen characterizes the societies of many Epiponini, or their recent ancestors. (c) 2008 The Linnean Society of London.

Caminhando com Dibs: uma trajetória de construção de conceitos em educação especial

O artigo é uma resposta ao trabalho de Piccolo, Moscardini e Costa, publicado no volume 16, número 1 deste periódico, no qual os autores analisaram a minha produção bibliográfica publicada em periódicos científicos. Alguns fatos da minha vida pessoal, intimamente ligados à trajetória acadêmica percorrida, são descritos com o intuito de favorecer a compreensão radical da minha posição teórica. As referências que dão suporte ao artigo foram, em boa parte, publicadas há algumas décadas. Isto se deve ao fato de que grandes contribuições teóricas nas Ciências Humanas ocorreram em meados do século passado. Significa que a preocupação excessiva com a atualidade das referências, avaliada em termos de cronologia, leva os pesquisadores a abrirem mão da vasta e rica sistematização teórica daquele período.

What the cognitive neurosciences mean to me

Cognitive Neuroscience is an interdisciplinary area of research that combines measurement of brain activity (mostly by means of neuroimaging) with a simultaneous performance of cognitive tasks by human subjects. These investigations have been successful in the task of connecting the sciences of the brain (Neurosciences) and the sciences of the mind (Cognitive Sciences). Advances on this kind of research provide a map of localization of cognitive functions in the human brain. Do these results help us to understand how mind relates to the brain? In my view, the results obtained by the Cognitive Neurosciences lead to new investigations in the domain of Molecular Neurobiology, aimed at discovering biophysical mechanisms that generate the activity measured by neuroimaging instruments. In this context, I argue that the understanding of how ionic/molecular processes support cognition and consciousness cannot be made by means of the standard reductionist explanations. Knowledge of ionic/molecular meclianisms can contribute to our understanding of the human mind as long as we assume an alternative form of explanation, based on psycho-physical similarities, together with an ontological view of mentality and spirituality as embedded in physical nature (and not outside nature, as frequently assumed in western culture).