Involvement

Wayne Vucinic Book Prize 2007, "for the most important contribution to Russian, Eurasian, and East European studies in any discipline of the humanities or social sciences." 

Endorsement by Slavoj Zizek:

"Alexei Yurchak's Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More immediately seduced me by its very title with a profound philosophical implication that eternity is a historical category--things can be eternal for some time. The same spirit of paradox runs through the entire book--it renders in wonderful details the gradual disintegration of the Soviet system from within its ideological and cultural space, making visible all the hypocrisy and misery of this process. I consider Yurchak's book by far the best work about the late epoch of the Soviet Union--it is not just history, but a pleasure to read, a true work of art." (Slavoj Zizek, author of In Defense of Lost Causes)

Abstract:

Soviet socialism was based on paradoxes that were revealed by the peculiar experience of its collapse. To the people who lived in that system the collapse seemed both completely unexpected and completely unsurprising. At the moment of collapse it suddenly became obvious that Soviet life had always seemed simultaneously eternal and stagnating, vigorous and ailing, bleak and full of promise. Although these characteristics may appear mutually exclusive, in fact they were mutually constitutive. This book explores the paradoxes of Soviet life during the period of "late socialism" (1960s-1980s) through the eyes of the last Soviet generation.

In order to bridge interdisciplinary differences in Presence research and to establish connections between Presence and “older” concepts of psychology and communication, a theoretical model of the formation of Spatial Presence is proposed. It is applicable to the exposure to different media and intended to unify the existing efforts to develop a theory of Presence. The model includes assumptions about attention allocation, mental models, and involvement, and considers the role of media factors and user characteristics as well, thus incorporating much previous work. It is argued that a commonly accepted model of Spatial Presence is the only solution to secure further progress within the international, interdisciplinary and multiple-paradigm community
of Presence research.

In three learning experiments we examined how subjects' level of involvement during initial exposure to consumer trivia influences what they learn and what they subsequently come to believe.  Subjects rated consumer trivia statements as more true when they had been exposed to those statements earlier in the experiment.  Simple repetition increased subsequent truth ratings.  Moreover, when subjects processed the information during initial exposure in a less involving fashion, the effect of repetition on truth became more pronounced.  Familiarity emerged as a key mediator of the truth effect.  When subjects experienced an "it rings a bell" reaction, they judged the information to be more true. Finally, under low-involvement processing, the truth effect increased when subjects engaged in a processing task (rote rehearsal) that increased familiarity without increasing evaluative processing of the information.

How does teachers' technological pedagogical content knowledge ("TPACK") inform their instructional planning? How can this knowledge be enhanced? In an interpretivist study of experienced secondary social studies teachers' planning, we sought to discover clues to the nature and development of these teachers' TPACK-in-action as it was expressed in their planning processes.

Whilst the condition of a damaged ethical life has received due scholarly attention to date, only rarely is resistance to it conceived as an actual possibility with the potential of real effects on a macro-social scale. This is not just a curious lacuna in the literature. To ignore or miss concrete possibilities or even instances of resistance is to reinforce the apparent naturalness and inevitability of structures of injustice. The aim of this edited collection is to help address this epistemological neglect, exploring the multiplicity of motives, presuppositions, sites, ways, and consequences of acts of resistance. As shown in the ensuing contributions, resistance can be recalcitrant or transformative in its aims, discursive or physical in its means, and local or generalised in its loci. If there is a single argument that can be distilled, it is that the emergence of progressive resistance entails the incessant rational critique of so-styled ‘common sense’ and prevalent ethical claims–a process which could be called ‘the banality of good’. Contributors (in alphabetical order): Andrea Mubi Brighenti, Leonidas K. Cheliotis, Lilie Chouliaraki, Spiros Gangas, Richard Kearney, Alison Liebling, John O’Neill, Nancy Scheper-Hughes, Justice Tankebe, Ezra Tessler, Sappho Xenakis.


Contents

List of Contributors
Acknowledgements

1. Roots, Rites, and Sites of Resistance: The Banality of Good: An Introduction
Leonidas K. Cheliotis

2. Values, Crisis, and Resistance: Prospects for Freedom Reconsidered
Spiros Gangas

3. Narcissism, Humanism, and the Revolutionary Character in Erich Fromm’s Work
Leonidas K. Cheliotis

4. Thinking after Terror: An Interreligious Challenge
Richard Kearney

5. Ecce Homo: The Political Theology of Good and Evil
John O’Neill

6. Resistance as Transformation
Andrea Mubi Brighenti

7. Acting on Vulnerable Others: Ethical Agency in Media Discourse
Lilie Chouliaraki

8. Sites of Resistance: Death Row Homepages and the Politics of Compassion
Ezra Tessler

9. Face to Face with Abidoral Queiroz: Death Squads and Democracy in Northeast Brazil
Nancy Scheper-Hughes

10. Resisting Submission? The Obstinacy of ‘Balkan’ Characteristics in Greece as Dissidence against ‘The West’
Sappho Xenakis

11. Legitimation and Resistance: Police Reform in the (Un)Making
Justice Tankebe

12. ‘Governmentality’ and Governing Corrections: Do Senior Managers Resist?
Alison Liebling

Positive emotions about consumption are known to improve consumer satisfaction, whereas negative emotions decrease it. Furthermore, feelings evoked by consumer experiences are important as they determine satisfaction. Previous retail studies have pointed out the significance of shopping environment, which influence consumer emotions. How do these emotions affect consumer behaviour during online service purchasing? This study examined psychological processes of cognition and emotions before and after the purchase of services on the Internet. The results show that both positive and negative emotions significantly affect not only consumer judgment but also satisfaction.

The conceptual roots of involvement are considered to better understand the construct's use in sport management research and practice. Sport involvement is conceptualized as a multifaceted construct representing the degree to which participation in a sport activity becomes a central component of a person's life and provides both hedonic and symbolic value. An empirical analysis of marathon runners (N=3117) was

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to study the role that a relational variable (trust) and three personal variables (impulsiveness, involvement and innovativeness), may play as antecedents of satisfaction of mobile shoppers. Design/methodology/approach -Quantitative information was collected using a survey instrument directed to Spanish mobile shoppers. In total, 447 valid questionnaires were obtained. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Findings -Trust, involvement and innovativeness were found to have a positive impact on mobile shopper satisfaction, except impulsiveness, which has a negative impact, as the authors proposed.

Most changes fail - according to Mike Hammer (the father of business re-engineering).

Many of the change enablement tools we use are useful to project managers and sponsors, but these tools merely invite and increase resistance.

The article visits a number of the most prevalent change activities and programmes, describing how they can be implemented. A model of change enablement activities are presented, detailing those that merely rely on power and those that rely on empowerment.

Fantasy sport has risen in popularity in the last decade with the advent of web 2.0. As people from around the world watch sporting events today, the Internet has become an ideal site to instantly disseminate results and achievements for avid fans and followers. This article is an attempt to position fantasy sports in the realm of game studies, drawing from the specific case of fantasy football (soccer in North America). Borrowing from and building on Roger Caillois’ classical game typology, this article seeks to arrive at a nuanced understanding of both fantasy sport as a game and the experience it offers to participants. By using an ethnographic approach, based on in-depth interviews and co-playing sessions, this study closely observes participants’ in-game performances in the Fantasy Premier League. By stitching together information from the interviews with observation of participants’ approaches and preferences along with the performance of their teams, this article identifies the key decisions and processes that a player of fantasy sport is part of. By situating fantasy sport in the ludic debate of preparation versus luck, this article offers unique insights into the various ways that players exert effort to succeed at the game. The use of an approach that examines what players do to their fantasy teams enables this paper to examine players’ psyches and the interrelated elements of fandom, favoritism and loyalty. Analysis of the data offers insights in to the various practices and approaches of players as well as lays the foundation of new concepts.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and recommend solutions to pressing problems facing journalists and disaster managers in performing their roles in disaster risk reduction. Media and disaster management organisations play a crucial role in disaster management. Both disseminate information to the public about natural and man-made disasters. The frequency, magnitude and scale of destruction of flood in the recent time have been a source of concern to stakeholders. It was agreed that collaboration of stakeholders can reduce the risk of flood. However, research suggests that the relationship between journalists, disaster management organisations and other stakeholders need improvement. To assist in identifying the problems hindering effective collaboration, 16 informants were interviewed. The informants comprise media men from two leading national newspapers and disaster managers from four government-owned disaster management organisations in Nigeria. The interviews were analysed using NVIVO 10 software. Findings show that the duo interact less before disaster occurrence while relationship during and after disaster occurrence is largely fraught with distrust, tension, fighting, blaming and other crisis. There is inadequate coordination, collaboration and communication among journalists and disaster managers before disaster occurrence. This paper recommends that media need to be effectively cultivated as one of the critical publics of disaster management organisations. Media too should see self as stakeholder not an ordinary participant. A functional relationship with the media before flood disaster strikes would be of great benefit to stakeholders and national development. INTRODUCTION Globally, the growing occurrences of flood disaster in the world are now a source of concern to stakeholders. The commonest disaster, flood is now a major threat to sustainable development and human existence [1]. For example, a 2015 report by the World Resource Institute (WRI) predicts that people that would be affected by flood globally would be over 54 million by 2030 from 21 million affected in 2015 [2]. Some factors such as increasing population, urbanization, changing climatic condition, human carefree attitudes, deforestation and others are responsible for the increasing menace of flood. As a social and developmental problem, there is an urgent need for stakeholders to work together and find lasting solution to the menace. Media is one of the key stakeholders. Its participation in disaster management has been identified as crucial [3], [4]. Lately, the focus on disaster management is shifting from response to disaster to disaster prevention, reduction and preparedness. The emphasis is now on disaster risk reduction before disaster occurrence than management of disaster after occurrence. Media has been identified as one of the critical stakeholders in disaster management. Its contents create awareness and educate people. These assist in building resilience, reducing disaster risks and vulnerability. Thus, effective participation is germane to the success of disaster risk reduction campaign. Active involvement of media is needed in the three stages of disaster management. The stages are pre, during and after disaster [5]. However, the present focus of disaster management organization and media is mainly on during and after disaster stages. This is

The working women segment has significantly influenced the modern marketing concept. The objective of this paper is to identify the changing perception and comparison of buying behaviour for working and non-working women in Urban India. It suggests that women due to their multiple roles influence their own and of their family members' buying behaviour. The study also reveals that working women are price, quality and brand conscious and highly influenced by the others in shopping.

This article examines five common misunderstandings about case-study research: (a) theoretical knowledge is more valuable than practical knowledge; (b) one cannot generalize from a single case, therefore, the single-case study cannot contribute to scientific development; (c) the case study is most useful for generating hypotheses, whereas other methods are more suitable for hypotheses testing and theory building; (d) the case study contains a bias toward verification; and (e) it is often difficult to summarize specific case studies. This article explains and corrects these misunderstandings one by one and concludes with the Kuhnian insight that a scientific discipline without a large number of thoroughly executed case studies is a discipline without systematic production of exemplars, and a discipline without exemplars is an ineffective one. Social science may be strengthened by the execution of a greater number of good case studies.

Purpose – Using the elaboration likelihood model as a framework, the purpose of this paper is to
investigate the effects of cause involvement, ability to process, and motivation to process on consumer
judgments of organizational image following exposure to a corporate social responsibility (CSR) message.
Design/methodology/approach – This study relies upon an experimental manipulation of message
complexity and uses quantitative survey data. The data were analyzed via tests of means differences,
hierarchical multiple OLS regression, and mediation analysis.
Findings – The authors found that CSR’s influence on image is unaffected by message complexity – at least
directly. However, CSR’s influence on image is intensified by greater cause involvement and information
processing ability, which indicates that central route processing is more likely to move the needle on such
assessments. Additionally, involvement serves as an important mediator on the effects that ability and
motivation to process have on ratings of organizational image.
Originality/value – The findings suggest the necessity for communicators of CSR to foster cause
involvement in consumers if social responsibility efforts are to resonate and garner positive results.
Additionally, should organizations wish to create deeper elaboration about CSR messages among consumers,
simple, straightforward messaging appears most effective. Complex messages can, however, serve as
valuable peripheral cues among certain audiences.

Research on sport spectators and sport fans is examined to develop a model of the psychological connections that individuals experience with sports or sport teams. The Psychological Continuum Model (PCM) is introduced. It provides an extended view of sport spectator and sport fan involvement, and outlines general parameters that may mediate the relationship between an individual and a sport or team. The PCM provides a framework that may account for an individual's movement from initial awareness of a sport or team to eventual allegiance. Four levels are described and differentiated: awareness, attraction, attachment and allegiance. The model proposes that the psychological connections between an individual and a sport or team are governed by the complexity and strengthening of sportrelated mental associations. The PCM provides a model that integrates current research and suggests new directions for future research and applications.

Phronetic organizational research is an approach to the study of management and organizations focusing on ethics and power. It is based on a contemporary interpretation of the Aristotelian concept phronesis, usually as ‘prudence’. Phronesis is the ability to think and act in relation to values, to deliberate about ‘things that are good or bad for humans’ in the words of Aristotle (1976:1140a24–b12). Phronetic organizational research effectively provides answers to the following four value-rational questions, for specific problematics in management and organization studies: 1. Where are we going with this specific management problematic? 2. Who gains and who loses, and by which mechanisms of power? 3. Is this development desirable? 4. What, if anything, should we do about it?

The Aalborg Project may be interpreted as a metaphor of modern politics, modern administration and planning, and of modernity itself. The basic idea of the project was comprehensive, coherent, and innovative, and it was based on rational and democratic argument. During implementation, however, when idea met reality, the play of Machiavellian princes, Nietzschean will to power, and Foucauldian rationality-as-rationalization resulted in the fragmentation of the project.

This paper reports on the struggle to create a major urban street that will help liveability and sustainability in the city of Tel-Aviv, Israel. Begin Road used to be a major inter-urban road linking the centre of Tel-Aviv with its eastern and northern suburbs. With the construction of the Ayalon Freeway running parallel to it, the new suburban rail system and the planned light rail subway that will run underneath, Begin Road is in the process of being transformed into the future main street of the Tel-Aviv central business district. The paper follows the development of the design from a criticism of an auto-oriented artery proposed for the street, through the development of alternatives based on different types of boulevard, to the design development of a multi-way boulevard. While the boulevard vision was generally accepted, existing difficulties with the current regulatory and professional context, as well as an auto-oriented city policy and lack of coordination of land use and transportation planning, still hinder the realisation of a great street.

The food industry is for sure one of the key industries in any country. This industry is facing tough competition like the other sectors. We know that attracting new customers to the business needs enormous budgets to be spent on marketing; these expenditures efficiency and effectiveness is a main concern to marketing managers. Therefore acquaintance with the consumer behavior is one the priorities to improve business procedures. Involvement is one of the main attributes in consumer behavior which affects the purchasing process and the post purchase behaviors. This research tries to analyze the relation between involvement and brand loyalty. In order to collect data for the research secondary data and questionnaire were used simultaneously. The statistical population of the thesis is macaroni and pasta products consumers; the sampling technique was the random sample of 384 people. This research is of the applicable type regarding the research’s goal and is survey research type regarding the data collection.To test the thesis’s hypotheses a questionnaire was designed; and the validity and reliability of the questionnaire was tested.To analyze the collected data methods such as koronbach alpha, Kolmogorov Smirnov test, correlation test and the freedman rating test were used. After analyzing the gathered data the hypotheses were approved.

At the same time that case studies are widely used and have produced canonical texts, it may be observed that the case study as a methodology is generally held in low regard, or is simply ignored, within the academy. For example, only 2 of the 30 top-ranked U.S. graduate programs in political science require a dedicated graduate course in case study or qualitative methods, and a full third of these programs do not even offer such a course. In contrast, all of the top 30 programs offer courses in quantitative methods and almost all of them require training in such methods, often several courses. In identifying this paradox of the case study’s wide use and low regard, Gerring rightly remarks that the case study survives in a “curious methodological limbo,” and that the reason is that the method is poorly understood. In what follows, we will try to resolve Gerring’s paradox and help case study research gain wider use and acceptance.

Our understanding of the cross-cultural aspects of personal epistemology is limited. In particular, cross-cultural comparisons of elementary school teachers’ and students’ personal epistemology have received very little theoretical or empirical attention. The current chapter aims to examine German and U.S. elementary schools in terms of their philosophical and practical similarities and differences in personal epistemology. Both theoretical and empirical work will be reviewed to support a more holistic model of personal epistemology, the Educational Model of Personal Epistemology. In light of this model, we discuss our expectations for differences and similarities in the epistemic climate of elementary classrooms in the U.S. and Germany. Drawing from this discussion, we suggest that researchers should approach cross-cultural research in personal epistemology from a more holistic standpoint, employ a diversity of methods, and obtain a solid understanding of the educational context under study. Regarding educational implications, we propose a possible fusion of the educational philosophies held in the U.S. and Germany concerning the implementation of teacher training and classroom education. Finally, we recommend that fostering evaluativistic thinking (i.e., a way of knowing that focuses on the evaluation and decision-making among differing viewpoints) should be a main goal for education starting at the elementary level to ensure students’ future roles as productive citizens in Western societies and stress the role of the teacher in this endeavor.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This study was intended to fulfill two purposes: 1) to identify the causes of student-teachers' anxiety, and 2) to discover the coping strategies they employed during their internship program. The participants of this study were eight student-teachers who did their internship in the 2013-2014 academic year as required by their undergraduate program in education at a faith-based International University. The phenomenological approach was employed to understand their lived experiences in relation to anxiety and coping strategies during their teaching internship. Data were collected through individual meetings, group forums, observations and individual interviews. The study discovered that student-teachers' anxiety was caused by various factors which can be grouped into three categories: preparation, classroom management and relationship. This study also identified four categories of coping mechanism employed by the student-teachers: adaptation, preparation, attitude and relationship. The findings of this study give cooperating teachers and internship supervisor insight into the experience of the eight student-teachers.

Consumer decision-making process is a subject that has been studied for decades in academia to at-tempt to uncover the processes that people use when making a choice between various alternatives.  It has been studied by both marketers and psychologists and initially focused on the steps consumers use to evaluate complex decisions or those that require substantial cognitive effort.  This research tended to focus on compensatory or noncompensatory traditional models, but others began to question if there were other ways that consumers evaluated alternatives for repeat pur-chases (Hoyer 1984, p. 822).  In addition, there has been research done to explain the decision process as a habit (Ji and Wood 2007, p. 261) and as a tradeoff be-tween effort and value (Mandrik 1996, p. 301). 
This study examines low-involvement decision-making process of college students at a Midwestern University.  Students were asked to evaluate their per-ceptions of pizza and complementary products through qualitative and quantitative research methods. Their low involvement heuristics were compared in terms of frequency of use across product categories and brands. These results were also compared to other studies using different product categories and segments.

"This paper uses an ethnographically-inspired methodology to look at the dynamics of anglicization and resistance against it in a culturally and linguistically homogeneous project team. We show that changing working language can be extremely disruptive to team work. Over the surface, efficiency is impaired as working in a foreign language restricts speakers’ accuracy, fluency and willingness to speak.  The  team  leader’s  important  and  difficult  role  is  to  limit “losses”.  Under  the  surface,  the
language  change  turns  out  to  strike  a  new  balance  of  power,  in  response  to  which  potentially harmful individual strategies emerge to in- or decrease the weight of English in team work, notably through  language-switching.  Ambiguity  as  a  policy  reaches  its  limits  there,  although  explicit negotiation may not be an option. Corporate language policy should in any case be thought of as dialectically co-constructed by decision-makers and language-users themselves."

L La a c co om mm mu un ni ic ca at ti io on n i in nt te er rn ne e a au u s se er rv vi ic ce e d du u c ch ha an ng ge em me en nt t --C M Me em mb br re es s d du u j ju ur ry y P Pr ré és si id de en nt t M. Bouzid AZZOUZI Professeur à l'ISCAE, Directeur de Recherche S Su uf ff fr ra ag ga an nt ts s M. Mustapha SLIMANI Professeur à l'ISCAE M. Mohammed BENDRISS BENAHMED Directeur de la Caisse Marocaine des Retraites M. Hassan MAOUNI Vice-président de la Chambre des Représentants, Ancien Ministre A l'ouverture de la première session de la 5 ème année législative (Vendredi 12 octobre 2001) « Louange à Dieu seul, Que la prière et la paix soient sur le Prophète, Sa Famille et Ses Compagnons,

The concept of managing a wide range of cultural diversity in the workplace is challenging but not impossible and one of increasing importance.  According to Johnson & Johnson (2006), there is an increasing interdependence on each other thus diversity in any setting is increasingly inevitable, the globalisation of business resulting in a more diverse workforce.

Triandis & Wasti (2008) explains organisational culture as shared behaviour and human made aspects of society including practices (how things are done here) and values (how things should be done).  Moreover, both Barak (2000) and Leonard & Straus (1997), summarise what is sometimes called the ‘platinum rule’, meaning that valuing diversity involves treating others as they wish to be treated.

Diversity in organizations is managed by the inclusion and awareness of minority groups such as ethnic, gender, aged and disabled workers.  These minority groups and women are often excluded in organizations despite projections showing they will make up the majority of workplace entrants in the next decade causing ongoing concern expressed by governments and business officials (Rubaii-Barrett & Beck, 1993).

Much empirical research has gone into the benefits of effectively managing this workplace diversity providing a wide range of strategies and actions.

This paper addresses the diversity of organisational culture on a macro level and what constitutes effective management of diversity on a micro level.

Tomorrow's marketing managers will be making decisions in an uncertain environment, in turn today's marketing educators must prepare students for the challenges of making decisions with ambiguous cues. Thus, the incorporation of testing and teaching techniques which encourage ambiguity tolerance is advanced.

Introduction
This case study focuses on a fast growing online business services startup platform in Australia.  It operates as its own functioning business unit under the umbrella of News Ltd, who own a cluster of individual digital companies also known as Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, one of the world’s largest global media companies.  This case study examines a change that occurred when almost the entire senior management staff level was replaced including the CEO two years ago. 

Organisational change is something that occurs throughout an organisation’s life cycle and effects the entire organisation rather than one part of it.  Employing a new person is one example.  Change is increasing due to a number of forces including globalisation led by rapidly advancing technologies, cultural diversity, environmental resources and the economy; therefore the ability to recognise the need for change as well as implement change strategies effectively, in a proactive response to internal and external pressures is essential to organisational performance.  Internal changes can include organisational structure, process and HR requirements and external changes involve government legislation, competitor movements and customer demand (Wood et al, 2010).

Change does not need to be a painful process, as it may seem when observing the amount of failed change management initiatives with reports as low as 10% of researched success rates (Oakland & Tanner, 2007), when successful change management strategies are utilised and planned, including effective communication strategies, operational alignment, readiness to change and implementation, which all lower and overcome resistance (Wood et al, 2010). 

There is a great amount of literature on the negative aspects and difficult management with employees resisting change, however Wood et al (2010) challenge this notion by questioning the change management process as people do not resist change itself but aspects of the change that affects them personally such as fear of the unknown, status, remuneration and comfort.  Resistance to these changes is a healthy reaction and can be managed effectively in the beginning by ensuring communication and using one of the change initiatives described here .

In this paper we argue that the use of the communicative theory of Jürgen Habermas in planning theory is problematic because it hampers an understanding of how power shapes planning. We posit an alternative approach based on the power analytics of Michel Foucault which focuses on ‘what is actually done’, as opposed to Habermas’s focus on ‘what should be done’. We discuss how the Foucauldian stance problematises planning, asking difficult questions about the treatment of legitimacy, rationality, knowledge and spatiality. We conclude that Foucault offers a type of analytic planning theory which offers better prospects than does Habermas for those interested in understanding and bringing about democratic social change through planning.

Although it is probably the best-known Prospective Hazard Analysis (PHA) tool, Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is far from the only option available. This paper introduces one of the alternatives: The Structured What-If Technique (SWIFT). SWIFT is a flexible, high-level risk identification technique that can be used on a standalone basis, or as part of a staged approach to make more efficient use of bottom-up methods like FMEA.

In this paper we describe the method, assess the evidence related to its use in healthcare using a systematic literature review, and suggest ways in which it could be better adapted for use in the healthcare industry. Based on the limited
evidence available, it appears that healthcare workers find it easy to learn, easy to use, and credible. Especially when used as part of a staged approach, SWIFT appears capable of playing a useful role as component of the PHA
armamentarium.

In the time, the organisation deemed its global businesses as lucrative and attractive, the management of the global business operations became so difficult and more complicated due to the influence of some factors such as cross-cultural diversity, communication, legal framework and political circumstances, which require the HRM to work on all organisational levels within both domestic and global business.

This article presents results from the first statistically significant study of cost escalation in transportation infrastructure projects. Based on a sample of 258 transportation infrastructure projects worth US$90 billion and representing different project types, geographical regions, and historical periods, it is found with overwhelming statistical significance that the cost estimates used to decide whether such projects should be built are highly and systematically misleading. Underestimation cannot be explained by error and is best explained by strategic misrepresentation, that is, lying. The policy implications are clear: legislators, administrators, investors, media representatives, and members of the public who value honest numbers should not trust cost estimates and cost-benefit analyses produced by project promoters and their analysts.

The study intended to determine the extent of community involvement in the Modular Distance Learning
Implementationand ascertain its impact on students’ academic success. Specifically,the research oughtto find
out the following: (1) the extent of community involvement in MDL implementation in terms of classroom
home environment, mentoring process, and school initiatives (2) the manifested academic performance in
terms of cognitive, affective, and manipulative skills/abilities (3) the relationship between community
involvement related factors and students’ academic success indicators. A quantitative research design was
used to determine community involvement in MDL implementation on student academic success. Moreover,
a descriptive correlational design is utilized in the study to ascertain the impact of community involvement
in MDL implementation on student academic success. The survey respondents participated by 100 Grade 8
students at Tinurik National High School for the school year 2020-2021. The survey was conducted online
through google forms. Results revealed that there is a significant relationship between community
involvement-related factors and student academic success. Results also suggest that the school may
continually encourage parents, local government units, and private entities to support and participate in the
implementation of MDL. In addition to that, teachers should always collaborate with parents to persuade
them to become part of their child’s learning and participate significantly in implementing school programs
and activities. Finally, the researcher suggested conducting Quarterly Meetings with PTA, local barangays,
and school administrators to discuss specific concerns and provide feedback on the students’ current
learning setup. These meetings will allow all participants to become active contributors in assisting the
school in shaping a community involvement program that meets the needs of every student in this new
learning setup.

This article presents the theoretical and methodological considerations behind a research method which the author calls ‘phronetic planning research’. Such research sets out to answer four questions of power and values for specific instances of planning: (1) Where are we going with planning? (2) Who gains and who loses, and by which mechanisms of power? (3) Is this development desirable? (4) What, if anything, should we do about it? A central task of phronetic planning research is to provide concrete examples and detailed narratives of the ways in which power and values work in planning and with what consequences to whom, and to suggest how relations of power and values could be changed to work with other consequences. Insofar as planning situations become clear, they are clarified by detailed stories of who is doing what to whom. Clarifications of that kind are a principal concern for phronetic planning research and provide the main link to praxis.