Performance management and common purpose: rethinking solutions to inter-organizational working

The theoretical concept of technological performance has emerged only recently with the publication of Jon McKenzie's Perform or Else: From Discipline to Performance in 2001. McKenzie develops a general theory of performance based around the development of three performance paradigms: cultural performance, organizational performance (or performance management), and technological performance. In his examination of the techno-performance paradigm, he focuses primarily on late twentieth and early twenty-first century 'high performance' technologies such as computers, guided missiles and space shuttles. While he acknowledges that the concept of performance does not apply only to technologies in this period, his analysis implicitly suggests that high performance technologies are a unique invention of the modern age. This essay confronts McKenzie's restriction of techno-performance to the post-WWII period by demonstrating how technologies performed and were seen to perform in the late nineteenth century through a techno-performance reading of Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897). The late Victorian period saw startling innovations in information and communication technology (such as the overseas telegraph, the typewriter, and the gramophone), which were marketed as high performance technologies, though not in those words. To contextualise my reading of Dracula , I examine contemporary Victorian advertisements for communication technologies to demonstrate how such technologies were viewed as high performance products by Victorian advertisers and consumers. Technology in Dracula has usually been read as a metaphor. I employ McKenzie's concept of techno-performance to examine the performative functions of technology in Dracula that have not yet been explored by Victorianist scholarship. McKenzie notes two challenges posed by techno-performance: first, the challenge posed by a developer to his/her technological product, to perform or be classified as obsolete; and, second, the challenge posed by technology to its user to perform or be regarded as outmoded. I argue that Stoker's Dracula takes up both of these challenges. Emergent technologies sometimes perform in unexpected and potentially disruptive ways, much like the space shuttle Challenger cited by McKenzie; at the same time, such technologies oblige their users to perform in unexpected and disruptive ways. This essay examines emergent technologies in Dracula to highlight the relationship between individual and technological performance in the late nineteenth century.

The core of this article is a comparative analysis of the double movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century (the belle époque and collapse of British hegemony) with the double movement of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century (the belle époque and current crisis of U.S. hegemony). In both periods the movement toward allegedly self-regulating markets called forth a countermovement of protection. Nevertheless, important differences exist due, first, to differences in the nature of the hegemonic state and, second, to the greater role of subordinate forces in constraining the movement toward self-regulating markets in the late twentieth century.

The book of Revelation is believed to be infused with anti-Roman sentiment, and the politics of Revelation has been discussed in a variety of ways by specialists for nearly 2,000 years. During the late twentieth century, “empire” emerged as a crucial term in the interpretation of John’s Apocalypse. This chapter explores the relationship between apocalypse and empire, with reference to imperial Rome. After discussing several important trends in Revelation studies in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, it considers the ways in which empire functioned within recent interpretations. It examines whether Revelation was a response to Roman imperialism and persecution as well as the experience of harassment, torture, and execution, and whether Revelation was subversive.

In the wake of several books published over the last decade on the history of United States fitness, historian Jürgen Martschukat offers an international examination of the subject by considering German and American fitness cultures in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Originally published in German in 2019, Martschukat's volume synthesizes a broad array of primary and secondary literature in chapters that, while not organized strictly chronologically, provide a multilayered narrative and advance critical perspectives on several themes in contemporary Western fitness. Chapters such as “Working,” “Having Sex,” and “Fighting” follow introductory sections that establish context for recent historical dynamics. Translated by Alex Skinner, the book is written in a clear and authoritative style that allows Martschukat's interpretative stance to reach a wide academic audience.Comparative material on German history and culture comes as a welcome supplement to more well-covered American narratives. For Martschukat, what unites the story of fit bodies across contemporary Western societies is neoliberalism and the biopolitics of capitalist market forces. Evolving from eighteenth- and nineteenth-century concepts of liberalism and Darwinian competition, today's obsessions with working on oneself allow advocates to express their value as productive members of society. Civic recognition follows those who “can credibly show that they invest in themselves, work on themselves, and know how to tap their own potential” (17) as opposed to others who cannot meet these modern demands.Martschukat's overtly negative take on fitness culture distinguishes his study from other recent monographs. Unfortunately, this creates opportunities for ideological heavy-handedness and overgeneralization that too often disrupt his argument. Turn-of-the-twentieth-century fitness and the media empire of Bernarr Macfadden is an example of neoliberal white male supremacy until in subsequent paragraphs it is not, and the accomplishments of women and minority groups are briefly addressed. In another chapter, Martschukat breezes from an early 1980s report in Der Spiegel on corporate workout programs to United States’ welfare reform in 1996, all examples of “mak[ing] citizens responsible for themselves as market actors, rather than protecting them from market risks through social safeguards” (63). Such forceful narration may convince readers already committed to Martschukat's brand of political engagement, but too many are left wondering whether his ideological boogeyman hunting actually explains change over time. He seems to realize this by the middle of the book, offering up a compelling chapter that links Viagra to historic and contemporary fitness culture, but he excuses himself in conclusion that “race as a category has received less attention so far in this chapter” (103). Perhaps Skinner's translation is partly to blame for the book's often jarring and obtrusive identity-based posturing, but Martschukat cannot escape entirely for failing to produce a more elegant, or at least more consistent, historical treatise.Unsurprisingly, therefore, the book's final chapter on the Western physical hero repeats familiar tropes about the late twentieth century and the “backlash” of muscular Americanism associated with the era of President Ronald Reagan. Meanwhile, examples that could complicate this interpretation are passed over. For example, Jane Fonda and the explosion of female fitness in the 1980s is given one sentence. In the end, The Age of Fitness too often substitutes academic synthesis and critical consensus for historical precision in the manner of an exciting online read but one that ultimately fails as an honest study of its subject matter. Readers expecting a carefully nuanced overview and argument are better served elsewhere.

Darwin's theory of evolution has been the cause of great distress and the subject of intense and constant debates among Jews, Christians and Muslims. The article analyzes why and how Sunni Muslim-Arab modernist-apologetic scholars, whose approach emphasizes the compatibility of Islam with empirical sciences, shifted from reluctantly reconciling the theory of evolution with the Qur'an in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to rejecting Darwin as a fabricator and describing his theory as a Christian aberration in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Through a comparative survey that focuses on the works of Ḥusayn al-Jisr (d. 1909), Muḥammad Rashīd Riḍā (d. 1935), Muḥammad al-Ghazālī (d. 1996), Yūsuf al-Qaraḍāwī (b. 1926) and Muḥammad ʿImāra (b. 1931), the article suggests that this shift corresponded with changes in the American anti-evolutionist discourse, and that, while contemporary modernist-apologetic literature casts Darwin as illegitimate, it does not close the door to a future acceptance of the theory of evolution.

7 - Regenerated protein fibres: a preliminary review

Globalization, which became widespread in the late twentieth – early twenty-first century, has led to large-scale changes associated with deepening the interdependence of national economies and their interpenetration, the formation of international industrial complexes beyond national borders, weakening the ability of nations to form independent economic policies. intensification of the movement of goods, capital, labor resources, the creation of institutions of interstate regulation of global problems, the attraction of the world economy to common standards, values, principles of operation based on the ideas of universalism. Universalism recognizes freedom and justice as more important values. Instead, sovereignty, which spread as a fundamental current at the beginning of the XXI century, is opposed to international law and emphasizes that the national interests of states are more important than the ideals of civilization (the interests of mankind). The article aims are to deepen the theoretical understanding of the processes of strengthening sovereignty in response to the global pandemic COVID-19 because the state’s membership in any supranational association directly affects its sovereignty in its classical sense. The basis of the research methodology is a scientific description and logical-deductive approach, illustrated by empirical cases from around the world. Data from statistical organizations, including the United Nations, the World Health Organization, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the Council of the European Union, and national health institutions from different countries of the world, were used to analyze the progress of the COVID-19 pandemic and the response of national economies to its effects, as well as analytical reports of the World Economic Forum and the countries of the world, including the countries of the European Union and Ukraine. The study found that there is a continuing confrontation in the world between the spread of sovereignty and the ideas of globalism in the current pandemic and only time will tell which of these theories will eventually gain dominance as a policy. However, according to the results of the study, the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic is largely due to the development of globalization, the openness of world economies, as well as the growing competitiveness of national economies.

The article reveals the periodization of foreign language training of masters of philology in the late twentieth – early twenty-first centuries. The main periods of this process are considered in the historical and cultural context, marked by the renewal of all spheres of state and social life of independent Ukraine and the European integration vector of its further socio-economic development. The study describes the stages of master’s training of future English teachers as one of the most common foreign languages in the world and therefore relevant in communicative and integrative terms in the context of globalization of interpersonal and international relations and interactions.Indicators of the development process of master’s education in Ukraine are government decrees and orders that define the strategy and regulate the conditions of its implementation in higher education institutions. The consistent nature of the state policy aimed at modernization of education in Ukraine in accordance with European requirements and norms, which determines the definition of qualification levels of higher education, in particular at its second (master’s) level is highlighted.The process of modernization of education in the context of globalization is connected with updating its content, forms and results in accordance with the world, especially European standards, which actualizes the development of normative documents of a new generation: educational programs and qualification characteristics of specialists with higher education at all its levels, programs of academic disciplines and diagnostic tools, as well as appropriate methodological support for training of specialists.The material of the article is intended for students, postgraduate students and teachers of higher education who study the history of national education. Keywords: foreign language training of masters; restoration of master’s education; periodization of foreign language training of masters of philology; modernization of education; globalization and European integration; program and methodological support of higher education; educational programs; qualification characteristics; programs of educational disciplines.

The implementation of healthcare policies in healthcare organizations is a pivotal issue for managers. They generally require a change in professional practices. In previous work, we developed the Integrative Framework for Implementation of change in Nursing Practices (IFINP) to support implementation initiatives for such change in nursing practices. We aimed to assess the generalizability of IFINP in other organizational settings and explore links between strategic and socio-material factors during implementation. We used a comparative qualitative case study at three French hospitals to assess the implementation of certification procedures. Data were collected from 33 semi-structured interviews with managers and nurses. Narratives reflecting actions and interactions were extracted and deductively analyzed using IFINP components. The results showed that the framework was flexible and captured the different aspects of implementation actions and interactions at the three hospitals. Strong interferences were identified between mobilization mechanisms and strategic elements. Interferences were observed mostly between ‘reflexive monitoring and work articulation’, and ‘reflexive monitoring and sense-making’ mechanisms. Leadership was integrated into the different mechanisms, especially the ‘translation’ mechanism. The IFINP facilitated a greater understanding of strategic elements and associated relationships with social and material factors during implementation. It helps to provide a clear definition of the managers’ role when implementing new nurse practices.

In response to “Digital Darwinism”, people, organisations and society need to adapt to the different characteristics of digital information.[...]

Theorists have argued that the increasing reliance on imprisonment in the late twentieth and the early twenty-first centuries is associated with a number of important social and political developments that began in the 1960s and 1970s. Despite the emphasis that has been placed on these historically contingent developments, scholars have yet to empirically examine whether the predictive power of recent political variables is restricted to the use of imprisonment in the late twentieth century. The current study addresses this gap in the literature by examining whether four political perspectives are able to account for the use of incarceration at the state level from 1930 to 2010. This study also examines whether the movement from the early to the late twentieth century changed the nature of the relationship between political considerations and jurisdictional reliance on imprisonment. The results indicate that the political party affiliation of elected officials, the public’s commitment to religious fundamentalist sentiment, and the size of African-American populations are significant predictors of imprisonment across the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.

BackgroundThe pre-industrial diet of the Swedish peasantry did not include mushrooms. In the 1830s, some academic mycologists started information campaigns to teach people about edible mushrooms. This propaganda met with sturdy resistance from rural people. Even at the beginning of the last century, mushrooms were still only being occasionally eaten, and mostly by the gentry. During the twentieth century, the Swedish urban middle class accepted mushrooms as food and were closely followed by the working-class people. A few individuals became connoisseurs, but most people limited themselves to one or two taxa. The chanterelle, Cantharellus cibarius Fr., was (and still is) the most popular species. It was easy to recognize, and if it was a good mushroom season and the mushroomer was industrious, considerable amounts could be harvested and preserved or, from the late 1950s, put in the freezer. The aim of this study is to review the historical background of the changes in attitude towards edible mushrooms and to record today’s thriving interest in mushrooming in Sweden.MethodsA questionnaire was sent in October and November 2017 to record contemporary interest in and consumption of mushrooms in Sweden. In total, 100 questionnaires were returned. The qualitative analysis includes data extracted from participant and non-participant observations, including observations on activities related to mushroom foraging posted on social media platforms, revealed through open-ended interviews and in written sources. With the help of historical sources, including earlier studies and ethnographical data collections, a diachronic analysis is given to describe the changes over time.Results and discussionDuring the last 100 to 140 years, Sweden has changed from a mycophobic to a mycophilic society with a passionate interest in the utilization of wild mushrooms. In the late twentieth century, various social institutions connected with mushroom hunting evolved. Evening classes, study circles, clubs, exhibitions, consultants, and a wide array of handbooks promoted this interest. In the early twenty-first century, mushrooming has become widely accepted, especially among the middle class, but also among Swedes in general. The so-called hipster-generation, born in the 1990s, harvests mushrooms due to their interest in producing their own food. This group often uses social media to identify edible species. Most people who go mushrooming gather only a few species. There are, however, some dedicated individuals who have become hobby specialists and who know a wide diversity of taxa. A few study participants reported that they were afraid of not being able to distinguish between poisonous fungi species and edible ones and therefore refrain from picking any wild mushrooms at all. However, they still consume cultivated mushrooms, such as Agaricus bisporus (J.E. Lange) Imbach, bought in grocery stores or served in cafes and restaurants.ConclusionSwedish society has changed rapidly during the last decades and so has the interest in mushrooming among its members. Throughout the second part of the twentieth century, the flow of information about mushrooms has continued through lecturers, courses, media, exhibitions, and even associations. Walking in forestland is also an important leisure activity for many urban Swedes, and in the early twenty-first century, mushrooming has also become a thriving pastime among people with an urban lifestyle.

There are heated debates on the existence of the global warming slowdown during the early twenty-first century. Although efforts have been made to clarify or reconcile the controversy over this issue, it is not explicitly addressed, restricting the understanding of global temperature change particularly under the background of increasing greenhouse gas concentrations. Here, using extensive temperature datasets, we comprehensively reexamine the existence of the slowdown under all existing definitions during all decadal-scale periods spanning 1990–2017. Results show that the short-term linear trend–dependent definitions of slowdown make its identification severely suffer from the period selection bias, which largely explains the controversy over its existence. Also, the controversy is further aggravated by the significant impacts of the differences between various datasets on the recent temperature trend and the different baselines for measuring slowdown prescribed by various definitions. However, when the focus is shifted from specific periods to the probability of slowdown events, we find the probability is significantly higher in the 2000s than in the 1990s, regardless of which definition and dataset are adopted. This supports a slowdown during the early twenty-first century relative to the warming surge in the late twentieth century, despite higher greenhouse gas concentrations. Furthermore, we demonstrate that this decadal-scale slowdown is not incompatible with the centennial-scale anthropogenic warming trend, which has been accelerating since 1850 and never pauses or slows. This work partly reconciles the controversy over the existence of the warming slowdown and the discrepancy between the slowdown and anthropogenic warming.

Foodservice industry is often associated with high labor usage, low employee satisfaction, and high employee turnover. Thus attracting and retaining qualified food service employees is essential. A questionnaire was used to determine whether a significant difference exists between departmental employee satisfaction and overall employee satisfaction in regards to six work environment dimensions: teamwork, leadership, trust, clear and common purpose, performance management, and employee assessment and development. The study evaluated six important contributors to employee satisfaction in high performing organizations. The population of this study included 500 employees of one university dining facility in Northern California.

The article presents an analysis of the content of professional training of higher education students in a higher education institution during the period of formation of independent Ukraine. The transformation of the content of education, the influence of international educational processes, the formation of educational standards and the priorities of modernisation, which determined the further development of the educational environment of Ukraine, are considered. The study has shown that during the formation of the Ukrainian higher education system, the content component of professional training has undergone a significant revision in both structural and content aspects. In particular: - the concept of educational content was redefined, which led to the formation of a multi-level structure of educational programmes, which provided for a clear division into three key components: fundamental, professionally oriented and variable training; - a competence-based approach to learning was introduced; - the practice-oriented component of the education content was expanded; - the humanitarian component was integrated into the structure of professional training; - Adaptation of Ukrainian education to European educational standards was carried out; - interdisciplinarity and adaptability of the content of education to the needs of the modern professional environment were enhanced; - the national component in the content of higher education has been intensified. The main characteristics of the content of professional training at the present stage are: modular and competence-based structure of educational programmes; balance between theoretical and practical components of student training, variability of educational programmes; interdisciplinarity and flexibility of content; digitalisation of the educational environment; internationalisation of educational content; humanitarian and ethical training. It is concluded that the reform of the content component of professional training in Ukrainian higher education institutions in the 1990s – early twenty-first century was accompanied by profound structural and methodological changes. These transformations were driven by the need to build its own educational policy focused on humanisation, competence-based approaches, democratisation and integration into the European space. Despite the challenges and difficulties of implementing the reforms, the foundations of a modern multi-level model of training adapted to the needs of the labour market and socio- cultural changes were laid.