In fields as diverse as research and development, governance, and international trade, success depends on effective communication and processes. However, limited research exists on how professionals can utilize procedures and express themselves consistently across disciplines. Corporate and Global Standardization Initiatives in Contemporary Society is a critical scholarly resource that examines standardization in organizations. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics, such as business standards, information technology standards, and mobile communications, this book is geared towards professionals, students, and researchers seeking current research on standardization for diverse settings and applications.
In fields as diverse as research and development, governance, and international trade, success depends on effective communication and processes. However, limited research exists on how professionals can utilize procedures and express themselves consistently across disciplines. Corporate and Global Standardization Initiatives in Contemporary Society is a critical scholarly resource that examines standardization in organizations. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics, such as business standards, information technology standards, and mobile communications, this book is geared towards professionals, students, and researchers seeking current research on standardization for diverse settings and applications.
Standards have become widespread regulatory tools that are set to promote global trade, innovation, efficiency, and quality. They contribute significantly to the creation of safe, reliable, and high quality services and technologies to ensure human health, environmental protection, or information security. Yet intentional deviations from standards by organizations are often reported in many sectors, which can either contribute to or challenge the measures of safety and quality they are designed to safeguard. Why then, despite all potential consequences, do organizations choose to deviate from standards in one way or another? This book uses structuration theory - covering aspects of both structure and agency - to explore the organizational conditions and contradictions under which different types of deviance occur. It provides empirical explanations for deviance in organizations that go beyond an understanding of individual misbehaviour where mainly a single person is held responsible. Case studies of software-developing organizations illustrate insightful generalizations on standards as a mechanism of sensemaking, resource allocation, and sanctioning, and provide ground to re-think corporate responsibility when deviating from standards in the 'audit society'.
Online communication has exploded in the past decade with the development of social networking sites like Facebook, as well as social media applications. As more people turn to the online world to connect with others, they must learn how to develop and maintain personal relationships with very little or no in-person interaction. Intimacy and Developing Personal Relationships in the Virtual World sheds light on the various issues that accompany online interactions. The book examines activities that have gone from occurring in reality to taking place in the online world such as cyberbullying, online social networking, and online dating. The publication also highlights the negative effects of spending a lot of time online such as mental health issues, internet addiction, and body image control. This book is a vital resource for psychiatrists, psychologists, clinicians, social workers, medical administrators, academicians, educators, and graduate-level students.
With the rise of the global economy, business operations and activities are no longer restricted by geographic territory. Therefore, development of diverse and adaptive leadership practices are necessary in order to succeed in a multicultural, complex, and often uncertain global environment. Contemporary Multicultural Orientations and Practices for Global Leadership is an essential reference source that seeks to enhance multicultural competencies and leadership attributes of contemporary global leadership practice to better navigate global business environments. Featuring research on topics such as human resource strategies, social responsibility, and psychological capital, this book is ideally designed for managers, business leaders, and researchers seeking coverage on multicultural intelligence and its relation to leadership development and the success of organizations.
The hospitality, travel, and tourism industries play a major role in citizen wellbeing, socio-cultural integration, and the economic advancement of a nation. The industries are increasingly complex in operation, demanding excellence across a far-reaching and diverse set of capabilities and changes in management practices across the board. With growing expectations for a better service quality from the users and endless calls for value-added service, managers are under constant pressure to improve their services across all aspects while growing customer numbers to meet various stakeholder expectations. Contemporary Management Approaches to the Global Hospitality and Tourism Industry is a key reference source that provides crucial knowledge on the application of new management practices and trends in the tourism industry. While highlighting topics such as service quality, culture sensitivity, and brand marketing, this publication explores the influence of globalization and the methods of sustainable business practices. This book is ideally designed for managers, hotel directors, restaurateurs, researchers, industry professionals, professors, and students seeking cutting-edge hospitality and tourism management strategies.
Technology’s presence in society continues to increase as new products and programs emerge. As such, it is vital for various industries to rapidly adapt and learn to incorporate the latest technology applications and tools. The Handbook of Research on Technology Integration in the Global World is an essential reference source that examines a variety of approaches to integrating technology through technology diffusion, e-collaboration, and e-adoption. The book explores topics such as information systems agility, semantic web, and the digital divide. This publication is a valuable resource for academicians, practitioners, researchers, and upper-level graduate students.
Software development continues to be an ever-evolving field as organizations require new and innovative programs that can be implemented to make processes more efficient, productive, and cost-effective. Agile practices particularly have shown great benefits for improving the effectiveness of software development and its maintenance due to their ability to adapt to change. It is integral to remain up to date with the most emerging tactics and techniques involved in the development of new and innovative software. The Research Anthology on Agile Software, Software Development, and Testing is a comprehensive resource on the emerging trends of software development and testing. This text discusses the newest developments in agile software and its usage spanning multiple industries. Featuring a collection of insights from diverse authors, this research anthology offers international perspectives on agile software. Covering topics such as global software engineering, knowledge management, and product development, this comprehensive resource is valuable to software developers, software engineers, computer engineers, IT directors, students, managers, faculty, researchers, and academicians.
Current modern companies, which are also the key factors of a global economy, are subject to increasing pressures to conduct their business in an environmentally responsible manner, due to social and environmental problems. Improving long-term environmental performance can bring economic benefits to those companies that are innovative and environmentally sensitive, especially by integrating environmental information into their business strategies. Considering all the changes, sustainability reporting, management, and financial accounting becomes a powerful information tool for executives, managers, and employee teams to gain insights and make better decisions. Along with concepts such as ethical, controlling, auditing, management, and financial accounting, reporting provides value with the decision-making process. All these debates underline the major responsibility of users when configuring accounting and finance models and thereby in modelling business information. Sustainability Reporting, Ethics, and Strategic Management Strategies for Modern Organizations proposes an interdisciplinary perspective and explores various theoretical and practical approaches of ethical standards, management accounting, and their impact in the 21st century on different areas of activity. It contrasts external financial accounting for government regulators and the investment community with internal management accounting for managers to leverage for decision making. In addition, the book examines the role of management accounting and sustainability reporting from other points of view such as ethical standards, corporate social responsibility, creative accounting, green accounting, environmental indicators, e-accounting, KPI, lean accounting, controlling, auditing, reporting, etc., offering a number of new insights into management accounting. It is intended for chief financial officers, financial controllers, business analysts, financial planners, financial analysts, budgeting managers, executives, managers, academicians, researchers, and students.
In light of the recent financial crisis in Europe and the increasing importance of sustainability in construction, insights and practical guidance for financial evaluation and risk management of infrastructure projects are extremely valuable for a well-planned future. It can make a massive difference in the outcomes of construction projects that have access to the "future economic benefits" approach to asset valuation as a correct asset management accounting to prevent over and underestimation of investments and repair debt. The Financial Evaluation and Risk Management of Infrastructure Projects is a comprehensive guide for professionals and students in the fields of construction and investment, as well as financial and investment institutions. It emphasizes the importance the life cycle cost of infrastructure projects and cost-benefit analysis in optimizing investments, as well as highlighting the need for cost-effective and sustainable infrastructure projects that incorporate "value for money" construction solutions while considering all risks involved. This book is ideal for professionals in construction, investment institutions, and financial and investment institutions, as well as for students in construction and investments. With the recent financial crisis in Europe and the growing focus on sustainability in construction, this guide offers practical insights and guidance for financial evaluation and risk management of infrastructure projects.
