Mark Neal

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide information about the extent to which sustainability is integrated into business school education and learning in the Asia Pacific region.

Design/methodology/approach – A survey was developed, and administered to business schools in the Asia Pacific region. In addition to measuring the number of courses and programs integrating sustainability, the study solicited qualitative observations by respondents, to provide information and insight into the issues.

Findings – The research found that whereas corporate governance, sustainability and business ethics were quite commonly taught in business schools, they were not generally prioritized. There was also an overall lack of systematic approaches to the integration of sustainability in business curricula, and significant barriers to the integration of sustainability into programs remained.

Originality/value – This is the first region-wide survey of sustainability in business education in the Asia Pacific region.

Although tourism crises have received increased attention in recent years, there has been a lack of research into coinciding crises and their effects on tourism. Correspondingly, there has been little theoretical work done on their nature, interaction and dynamics. In this article, we seek to redress this, and extend the study of tourism crises by looking at antecedent crises of different orders that interact and escalate in ways that damage tourism. As a case of this, we discuss the situation in Thailand from 2007 to 2009, and explain how two different orders of antecedent crises - an economic meltdown, and an escalating political crisis - interacted to form an acute and complex mega-crisis, which ultimately facilitated the spectacular occupation of Bangkok's two main airports by the opposition to the government in November 2008; this in turn completely disrupted, and provoked a sharp and prolonged drop in, tourist arrivals to the country. Through a discussion of this case, we raise some important theoretical issues regarding the development of tourism crises generally, most notably the analytical importance of human agency within unfurling antecedent crises.

Keywords: tourism crises; coinciding crises; Thailand; sociology of tourism; airports

Studies of tourist enclaves have noticed their boundedness, but paid little attention to the theoretical significance of the strictness of their boundaries for their internal dynamics. This issue constitutes the point of departure of our study of a Middle Eastern Muslim tourist enclave in an international tourist zone in Bangkok, which plays a double role as a source of religiously proscribed hedonistic opportunities and religiously prescribed services to a
Muslim clientele. The enclave was founded by Gulf Arab sex tourists in the early 1980s and became a center of sexual services to Middle Eastern visitors, but its hedonistic role came to be increasingly confined to a hotel, and consequently stagnated, whereas the service role of the enclave flourished, particularly after the recent arrival of Middle Eastern medical tourists and their families, seeking treatment in a nearby hospital. The article analyses how the latter’s arrival has changed the dynamics and structure of the enclave, led to unresolved tensions between vice and virtue in the area, and reconfigured the relationship of the enclave with the wider international tourist zone.

This article introduces the notion of “effective corrupt leadership” to distinguish those in public office who engage in corrupt practice, who are more effective, and better for their people, than alternatives. The paper examines a case of such leadership by discussing the career of the late Rafik Hariri, the Lebanese Prime Minister who initiated and achieved the rebuilding of Beirut after the Lebanese civil war between 1975 and 1990.

This chapter discusses the ProSPER.Net initiative to integrate sustainability into business schools in the Asia-Pacific region. The project deserves scrutiny, as it led to positive change within each of the partner universities, involving innovative research, curricular transformation and the development of regional case studies. As such, the project is an instructive case in its own right, highlighting the successes, as well as the
obstacles encountered, in introducing and coordinating education for sustainable development (ESD) in diverse organizations. The experience of the project clearly shows that whereas there is a recognized need to promote ESD in business schools throughout Asia, the process of achieving this is difficult and complex. Through a consideration of the achievements and frustrations of the project, it is hoped that this chapter will contribute to a better understanding of these issues, and will help in subsequent efforts to integrate sustainability in business education.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature and significance of flexibility in decisions about education and training options. This is done through an examination of the relevance of real options valuation (ROV) to our understanding of educational and training choices. Through this examination, the paper aims to contribute to the debate about how we can better advise and support people making such decisions. Design/methodology/approach – The research involved three overlapping stages: a critical examination of the theoretical work on flexibility in decisions; a review of the literature on the role and significance of flexibility in education and training decisions; and an application of the lessons of ROV to the analysis of decisions about education, training and careers.
Findings – The analysis of the theoretical work on flexibility alongside the review of the literature on education and training decision-making, demonstrated that there was little current application of theory to the analysis of such choices. Reviewing the literature, it was discovered that ROV held significant lessons for the analysis of education and training decisions, and important practical implications for the support and guidance of people making these choices.
Originality/value – This is the first study to apply the principles of ROV to educational and training choices.

An often posed question among business educators in the Middle East is the degree to which the values they teach may eventually bring about changes in the social order. To answer this question, we examined this question by assessing the degree to which graduating seniors in an" American" university in Lebanon felt that the value systems being taught in their business courses were (a) consistent with their personal beliefs;(b) consistent with the beliefs of most people in the culture.

Abstract A firm's corporate reputation is increasingly interwoven with external stakeholders' perceptions of the firm's environmental policies. Companies are thus using environmental disclosures as a means of convincing stakeholders of the propriety and legitimacy of their environmental policies. The success of this communication process depends not just upon the content or structure of the disclosure, but to a very large extent on how the firm and message are defined.

Abstract Although the study of leadership is now a well-established field within management, most of the research to date has been Anglo-American in origin, and focused upon male traits and activities. Two areas thus need further research: firstly, the issue of female leadership (attitudes, traits, activities, strategies); and, second, the issue of leadership in developing countries. This paper addresses both needs by examining women's attitudes towards leadership in three developing countries.

Abstract This article identifies “aggressive patent litigation” as a key strategy in innovative high technology industries. For the purposes of discussion, the analysis focuses upon Rambus, a leading semiconductor (SIP) firm, which has famously pursued aggressive patent litigation since it was founded in 1990, up until the most recent US Supreme Court ruling on Rambus vs. Infineon 2003.

This study aimed to demonstrate how a community in Nakhon Si Thammarat Province has been successfully using the sufficiency economy concept to develop its community. The study employed two techniques of qualitative data collection, which were in-depth interviews and fieldwork surveys. From the findings, we found that more than 60 percent of the participating households used the sufficiency economy concept to maintain their livelihood including activities such as planting vegetables for both domestic consumption and sale, domesticating animals, saving money with a cooperative society, protecting their environment, and living their lives by moral principles and human ethics.

This article introduces the notion of “effective corrupt leadership” to distinguish those in public office who engage in corrupt practice, who are more effective, and better for their people, than alternatives. The paper examines a case of such leadership by discussing the career of the late Rafik Hariri, the Lebanese Prime Minister who initiated and achieved the rebuilding of Beirut after the Lebanese civil war between 1975 and 1990. Using the historical case-study method, an examination of Hariri's activities allows us to appreciate the difficulties of achieving tangible welfare benefits in corrupt circumstances. Notably, the moralizing attacks by Hariri's rivals show that while achieving and sustaining political powermay require corrupt practice, such practice can
ultimately undermine the leader authority and power. This “blifil paradox” demonstrates how difficult it is to lead effectively in corrupt circumstances. Through a discussion of these difficulties and challenges, the article attempts to demonstrate the significance of “effective corrupt leadership”, both in terms of its impact upon people, and its importance for the refinement of our understanding of leadership.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to document and analyze the case of a public sector organization in the Gulf region, in which Arab-expatriate relations worked well and sustained a positive and high-performing organizational climate.

Design/methodology/approach – The research employed an embedded ethnographic approach to produce a case analysis of expatriate-local work relations.

Findings – The study found that although there may be multiple sources of difference and potential conflict between Arab locals and expatriates in the workplace, there are circumstances where the effects of such divisions are neutralized, and a positive work environment is sustained. The paper identifies the key sources of division, and social cohesion, and shows how – in this case – these factors interacted so that the negative impact of cultural difference was neutralized, and good working relations were achieved.

Originality/value – The paper is new in two respects. It is the first ethnographic study of Arab-expatriate work relations in a public sector organization in Oman. It is also the first paper to identify, and distinguish between, the factors emphasizing alterity between Arab and expatriate workers, and those encouraging social cohesion.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate paradoxes in the development of organizational cultural problems – paradoxes that go undetected by people involved in them. The paper explains why these paradoxes remain undetected, and shows how their “invisibility” is a foundation for the development of “cultural problems”.

Design/methodology/approach – The approach is phenomenological, in that it explores how actors in cross-cultural settings understand “difference” and thereby socially construct “cultural problems”.

Findings – Three interrelated paradoxes are uncovered: In dyads, actors perceive two-way “cultural difference” as being one-way. “Difference” thus becomes embodied in the “other” – “the other” alone is “different” and “difficult”. In bi-cultural organizations, perceptions of “the other” as “different” and “difficult” encourage the formation of in-groups and out-groups that lead to “cultural problems”. “Difference” becomes embodied in “the others” while “cultural problems” that are the results of their own actions are also embedded in “the others”. In multicultural organizations these understandings break down. “Difference” becomes disembodied, and “cultural problems” become embodied in “difference”. More cultural differences thus engender fewer “cultural problems”.

Research limitations/implications – The novel theoretical part of the study is so far untested. The paper thus calls for studies that apply the developed theoretical approach. The ethnographic observations that support the existence of the multicultural paradox are preliminary and ongoing.

Practical implications – The novel theoretical approach can immediately be applied to other organizational issues.

Originality/value – This paper introduces, for the first time, the Buddhist concept of anatta in the analysis of organizations. The theoretical approach is new, and can be applied to further studies of organizational problems.

The concept of 'professionalization' is commonly used to describe how occupations become recognized as 'professions', and how they go about consolidating this status and improving their services. Contemporary debate often glosses over the historical development of the professions. Indeed, professionalism is often discussed and debated in a way that treats professionalization as a recent and uniform phenomenon. Taking a comparative historical perspective this paper identifies the stages through which occupations in the UK and Germany developed into the recognized professions of today. In doing so, it demonstrates that the process of professionalization has been radically different in the two countries, in particular with regard to the role of the state in initiating and administering professional bodies. Overall the study demonstrates that the process of professionalization in the UK has been 'bottom up', in that professional bodies have resulted from spontaneous activities at the occupational level to secure professional status. By contrast, professionalization in Germany has been 'top down' in that the state has played an active interventionist role in the initiation and administration of the professions. In detailing these different patterns this paper aims to provide an empirical resource for researchers in the field, and to contribute to the understanding of the differences in the organization and administration of professional services in the UK and in Germany. Finally, the emerging role of the EU in the administration, training, and licensing of professionals is discussed. The point is made that while particular EU directives have changed the relationship between the professions and the state in both countries, large-scale intervention by the EU has resulted in a new form of Euro-professionalization, typified by the establishment of the new profession of 'eco-auditors'.