From Yojana Shara, University World News

Innovation and knowledge are fast becoming new measures of international economic growth competitiveness with universities at the core. But measuring ‘knowledge capital’ or the more intangible intellectual capital as a contributor to national prosperity is still a new field. In a new book a Swedish academic has ranked nations in terms of intellectual capital, and Finland, Sweden and Switzerland came out on top.

Potential for future competitiveness is increasingly based on aspects of the knowledge economy but other conditions must also be met for a country to become richer, according to Leif Edvinsson of the University of Lund in Sweden, who has just released a book National Intellectual Capital: A comparison of 40 countries* which ranks countries according to how well knowledge and human capital translates into economic development and prosperity.

He believes investing in intellectual capital can ensure not just economic growth but quality growth that can be sustained. “A country may be wealthy today, but what about tomorrow? Knowledge and human capital must be sustainable,” Edvinsson told University World News.

“Intellectual capital is much more about quality of education and human experience than the number of people in higher education,” Edvinsson said. In his view universities are important “not as mass education, but as training for the human brain – universities are the back office rather than the front office of innovation and development,” he said.

So simply building more universities and getting more students into higher education will not create intellectual capital unless the economy can provide graduates with relevant jobs, or the environment to set up innovative companies. Intellectual wealth, according to the World Bank, can improve people’s lives as well as give them higher income.

To Read More…

The latest issue of  The International Journal of Knowledge, Culture and Change Management includes:

• Campus Adjustment among International Students in Malaysia by Zuria Mahmud, Salleh Amat, Saemah Rahman and Noriah Mohd Ishak.
• Socially Responsible Investing and the Rule of St. Benedict by Cheryl Crozier Garcia.
• How Human Resource Management and Human Capital Management Influence Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by Johanna Maksimainen and Pertti Saariluoma.
• Thinking Patterns of Sexually Abused Victims: Implications to Managing the Victims by Nor Shafrin Ahmad and Rohany Nasir.
• Institutional Brand and Reputation Management in the Global Higher Education Market by Nicolas Gachon.
• Between Planned and Emergent Change: Decision Maker’s Perceptions of Managing Change in Organisations by Margit Liebhart and Lucia Garcia Lorenzo.

First impressions count. This is the message Swiss bank UBS AG is sending its Swiss retail banking staff with a 43-page code dispensing advice on how to impress customers with a polished appearance.

Echoing rules applied at Swiss boarding schools, UBS’s guidelines go beyond a list of dress “dos” and “don’ts” by providing hygiene and grooming tips often dotted with aphorisms worthy of fashion and beauty magazines.

The move is part of a test UBS is carrying out in Switzerland across five pilot branches. It follows a recent advertising campaign aimed at re-establishing confidence in the Swiss bank’s brand and mending relations with clients.

As if taking a cue from style manuals, which often stress the importance of well-cut basic outfits in neutral colors, the bank expects its retail banking staff to wear suits in dark grey, black or navy blue, since these colors “symbolize competence, formalism and sobriety.”

Short skirts are off limits for female staff, who are told the ideal length should reach the middle of the knee. Showy accessories and trendy spectacles are a no-no. The document isn’t short of handy grooming tips.

For more…

Volume 10, Number 5 contains:

• Managing Stress During Economic Recession and Post Recession: A Guide for Human Resource Managers by A. S. Jim Sethi.
• ‘Teach our Mob’: Lessons Learnt from an Aboriginal Teacher Education Training Program in Australia by Janette Long and Elizabeth Labone.
• The Determinants of Training in Small Businesses: An Interindustry Comparison by Janice T. Jones.
• Potential and Apparent Issues of Self-evaluation in Public Administration: The Case of Common Assessment Framework Implementation by David Spacek.
• Program Management in Secondary Schools: A Metaevaluation by SeriaShia Chatters, Eun Kyeng Baek and Liliana Rodríguez-Campos.
• Formalising Industry Feeedback in Assessment Practice for Work Integrated Learning by Kathy Henschke and Joan Richardson.

• Campus Adjustment among International Students in Malaysia by Zuria Mahmud, Salleh Amat, Saemah Rahman and Noriah Mohd Ishak.
• Socially Responsible Investing and the Rule of St. Benedict by Cheryl Crozier Garcia.
• How Human Resource Management and Human Capital Management Influence Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by Johanna Maksimainen and Pertti Saariluoma.
• Thinking Patterns of Sexually Abused Victims: Implications to Managing the Victims by Nor Shafrin Ahmad and Rohany Nasir.
• Institutional Brand and Reputation Management in the Global Higher Education Market by Nicolas Gachon.
• Between Planned and Emergent Change: Decision Maker’s Perceptions of Managing Change in Organisations by Margit Liebhart and Lucia Garcia Lorenzo.

From Edward Hallowell, Harvard Business Review

New research by University of Minnesota psychologists shows how social support benefits are maximized when provided “invisibly” — that is, without the support recipient being aware that they are receiving it. The study, “Getting in Under the Radar: A Dyadic View of Invisible Support,” is published in the December issue of the journal Psychological Science.

In the study, graduate student Maryhope Howland and Professor Jeffry A. Simpson suggest there may be something unique about the emotional support behaviors that result in recipients being less aware of receiving support. Receiving social support, such as advice or encouragement, is typically thought of as positive, a generous act by one person yielding benefits for another in a time of need. Effective support should make someone feel better and more competent, it is generally acknowledged. However, what is supposedly considered “support” may make someone feel vulnerable, anxious or ineffective in the face of a stressor, Howland and Simpson found.

It seems to me that this study is as relevant for managers as it is for romantic partners, who were the actual subjects in the study. It is a truism that employees need support, and that enlightened management does all it can to provide support. But this study suggests that if the support is provided too obviously, too visibly, it can actually make a person feel worse. Support that is too blatant risks making the recipient feel as if he needed support, which is not a feeling most people in the workplace feel comfortable acknowledging. Well-intended though it may be, visible support can backfire, and make the employee feel resentful, insecure, and worried.

To Read More…

From Stephanie Nora White and Rebecca Theim, Forbes.com

If the scandals that have plagued corporate America in the past two years haven’t gotten you thinking about your own company’s vulnerabilities, then the latest revelations out of WikiLeaks certainly should.

In an interview with Forbes’ Andy Greenberg, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange declared that half the documents that have been fed to the organization are from corporations, and that sometime early next year his organization plans what presumably will be the first of many corporate disclosures. It will begin with information about one of the nation’s leading banks. The target is rumored to be Bank of America, and the bank’s stock tumbled 3% shortly after the rumors were publicized.

Got your attention now?

WikiLeaks is promising to give a voice to the disenfranchised, disgusted and disillusioned within Corporate America, those who have knowledge of company behavior ranging from distasteful to criminal. “Companies turn people into leakers by their failure to listen, look and respond,” says business consultant and author Margaret Heffernan, whose forthcoming book, Willful Blindness: Why We Ignore the Obvious at Our Peril, will tackle the issue.

To Read More…

The latest issue of  The International Journal of Knowledge, Culture and Change Management includes:

• The Mining Experience: A Case Study by Aspa Sarris.
• Change is the New “in”: Who Resists Change? by Saima Ijaz, Tony Vitalis and Jan Lockett-Kay.
• The Impact of Recession on IT Recruitment and Retention by Perley-Ann Friedman and Linda Schweitzer.
• Relationship between Performance Appraisal Satisfaction and Work Performance, Affective Commitment and Turnover Intention by Sayyed Mohsen Allameh, Jila Asghari, Sharif Shekarchizadeh Esfahani and Hossein Kakaei.
• The Contribution of Technological Inputs and Spillovers to Competitiveness and Economic Growth: The Case of the Spanish Regions by Gumbau Albert, Mercedes and Maudos Villarroya, Joaquin.
• The Effect of Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation on Staff Knowledge Sharing Intentions by Sayyed Mohsen Allameh, Elnaz Seyyedsadri and Sayyed Mohammad Reza Davoodi.

The fourth issue of Volume 10 of The International Journal of Knowledge, Culture and Change Management has now been published.

Volume 10, Number 4 contains:

• Globalisation, Education Reforms and Policy Change in Nigeria by Babajide G. Abidogun and Ayoola Sunkanmi Odubunmi
• The Relationship between Educational Achievement and Social Capital by Ebadollah Ahmadi and Ansari Mehr Samira.
• A Case Study Analysis of Change Management Intervention and the Nature and Nuances of Resistance to Change in a Complex Organization by Emad Rahim and Darrell Norman Burrell.
• The e-Books and e-Readers: Revolution and Diffusion by James Sena.
• Citizen Engagement in the Networked Community by Sylvie Albert and Rolland LeBrasseur.
• PAWs model of Future Customer Behaviour by Anthony Perrone.

• The Mining Experience: A Case Study by Aspa Sarris.
• Change is the New “in”: Who Resists Change? by Saima Ijaz, Tony Vitalis and Jan Lockett-Kay.
• The Impact of Recession on IT Recruitment and Retention by Perley-Ann Friedman and Linda Schweitzer.
• Relationship between Performance Appraisal Satisfaction and Work Performance, Affective Commitment and Turnover Intention by Sayyed Mohsen Allameh, Jila Asghari, Sharif Shekarchizadeh Esfahani and Hossein Kakaei.
• The Contribution of Technological Inputs and Spillovers to Competitiveness and Economic Growth: The Case of the Spanish Regions by Gumbau Albert, Mercedes and Maudos Villarroya, Joaquin.
• The Effect of Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation on Staff Knowledge Sharing Intentions by Sayyed Mohsen Allameh, Elnaz Seyyedsadri and Sayyed Mohammad Reza Davoodi.

The latest issue of  The International Journal of Knowledge, Culture and Change Management includes:

• An Applied Application of Contemporary Strategic Leadership Analysis in Higher Education for Managing Organizational Environmental Adaptation and Change by Darrell Norman Burrell and Emad Rahim.
• A Theoretical Approach to the Internationalization Process of MNEs in the Food Industry in Colombia by Andres Mauricio Castro Figueroa and Hugo Alberto Rivera Rodríguez.
• The Relationship between Leadership Style, Job Stress and Coping Strategies by Chan Yuen Fook and Gurnam Kaur Sidhu.
• Forensics of a Straw Man Pharmakos in Northrop Frye’s ‘Theory of Modes’ by Rickard Goranowski.
• Designing the Future: The Knowledge Agenda at Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority by Ola Busari.
• Characteristics of Authorship and Papers to an Education Journal in the Pacific Islands: Pacific Islands Educational Journal by Jeremy Dorovolomo.

The third issue of Volume 10 of The International Journal of Knowledge, Culture and Change Management has now been published.

Volume 10, Number 3 contains:

• The Effect of Implementing EFQM Model on the Performance: In Barez Industrial Group by Mehdi Barkhordar, Abbas Abbasi and Mohammad Ali Forghani.
• Perceived Group Process Gains and Losses in Electronic Environments: Does Culture Matter? by Cesar Perez-Alvarez and Mahmoud Watad.
• An Empirical Investigation of Gender Dynamics and Organizational Change by Babajide Osatuyi, Nancy Steffen-Fluhr, Anatoliy Gruzd and Regina Collins.
• Investigation of the Effective Factors on Acceptance of Web Logs: Role of Technology Acceptance, Social Influences and Motivation for Knowledge Sharing by Mohammad Esmaeil Ansari, Rasoul Abbasi and Ayob Lotfi.
• Leadership and School Culture by Hassan Rahgozar and Ansari Mehr Samira.
• Time Lapse: Cross-Cultural Transition in Cognitive and Technological Aspects – The Case of Ethiopian Adult Immigrants in Israel by Yarden Fanta-Vagenshtein and David Chen

• An Applied Application of Contemporary Strategic Leadership Analysis in Higher Education for Managing Organizational Environmental Adaptation and Change by Darrell Norman Burrell and Emad Rahim.
• A Theoretical Approach to the Internationalization Process of MNEs in the Food Industry in Colombia by Andres Mauricio Castro Figueroa and Hugo Alberto Rivera Rodríguez.
• The Relationship between Leadership Style, Job Stress and Coping Strategies by Chan Yuen Fook and Gurnam Kaur Sidhu.
• Forensics of a Straw Man Pharmakos in Northrop Frye’s ‘Theory of Modes’ by Rickard Goranowski.
• Designing the Future: The Knowledge Agenda at Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority by Ola Busari.
• Characteristics of Authorship and Papers to an Education Journal in the Pacific Islands: Pacific Islands Educational Journal byJeremy Dorovolomo.