In this chapter, we first explore the growth of information and communication technologies in education, promoting technology enhanced learning (TEL). We appraise the impact of COVID-19 on higher education before exploring the concept of a virtual organization and virtual higher education. We discuss our collective lived experience in developing and working in a virtual higher education institution (Virtual University). We explore a crucial concept in the governance of any institution, transparency, before turning to a discussion of higher education in a post-COVID world. We conclude with a clear statement of the central roles of transparency, delegations, policy and process, and formal and informal structures in good governance of virtual and conventional HEIs.

We discuss the challenge of corporate governance and its regulation in the post-modern world. In so doing we explore the complex web of recent regulation that has developed out of a mix of political ideologies and business scandals. We highlight a series of identifiable issues at the interface between the regulation of corporations, its practice and its theory, and conclude with a discussion of future directions for governance research, as well as methodological issues implicit in process studies of governance.

 A set of major disruptive political, socio-economic, technological, and ecological trends presents serious issues for tourism policy makers, regulators, and operators alike. In this turbulent context, how best to attempt to predict tourist behaviours? In tourism research the dominant rationalistic approach to decision-making does provide some useful insights across tourism choice. However, it seems increasingly less suited to the often relatively unplanned, hedonic, opportunistic, and impulsive decision-making that often characterises tourists’ behaviours on-site within a destination, and more generally to the behaviours of Generation Y and Generation Z. More generally, it is arguable that rational models of motivation and decision-making systematically underestimate the importance of affective processes in tourists’ behaviours. In this paper, we explore the implications of employing a much more naturalistic approach to decision-making at both the policy level and at the frontline of tourism

The trend towards the wider use of risk management in response to an increasingly hostile business environment is discussed. This is centred upon the notion that there is a need for a paradigm shift towards a more proactive model of risk management. Two key barriers to this move, culture and communication, are identified. Several behavioural theories of risk management are developed based upon theories of risk regulation. The focus falls on a conspiracy theory that is explained in terms of cultural differences between groups interested in the management of risk. Attention then moves to communication and its contribution to risk amplification and crisis development. The role that culture plays here is discussed.

What goes on in a small firm that lives or dies by its capacity to innovate? How are decisions made on new product development, and how does that feed into the ecological, social and financial sustainability of the firm? This book answers the questions through an in-depth look at a small business that manufactures high-end carpet yarn. Using advanced analytical techniques to interrogate rich qualitative data, the book draws together established theories of decision-making and new product development, coupled with thinking about business sustainability to improve our understanding of this important area of business practice. The book further reinforces the importance and role of organizational learning in organizational decision-making, based on novel analysis of empirically developed qualitative data.

Whatever our epistemological stance, when we as researchers enter an organization we make observations of organizational life. We then craft abstract or imaginative theories from such observations. However, there exist fundamental issues with taking such observations in the first place, and which, as a consequence, confound theories based upon them. More specifically, I contend that in observing any organization, the observer: changes that organization, certainly in the immediate zone of observation, but also perhaps in spatially separated parts of the organization; cannot know that they have made the right assumptions about the organization; can know neither what mixture of states the organization was in immediately before they observed it nor to what mixture of states the organization returned to after they observed it; and can observe only one of many organizational worlds (their own). These contentions are grounded in well-rehearsed thought experiments from theoretical physics or more specifically quantum mechanics. This may seem far from organizational studies, but, these thought experiments focus upon the behavior of natural systems, particularly at the quantum level. Again this seems far from organizational studies, but, the quantum world is a major source of process thinking which has enjoyed considerable and recent application in the field of organization studies. In this paper I justify the appropriateness of using these thought experiments, explain at length the reasoning behind my contentions, and outline the implications that I believe these hold for the 'dance of individuals and organizations'.

I initiate the development of an approach to critical studies of leadership and governance drawing upon themes central to Franklian existential psychotherapy: self-discovery, choice, uniqueness, responsibility and self-transcendence. I use these to explore the origins of organization and management issues including corruption, corporate greed, hubris and other executive neuroses. In particular I focus upon understanding how Frankl's approach might be employed within the framework of process studies of organisation and management.

This paper presents an initial discussion on the relevance of ostensive and performative routines as they relate to business resilience, with a specific focus on the responsive resilience routine of crisis management. While it can be argued that across the elements of business resilience there is an importance of alignment between the written script and performance, it is during the management of a crisis that minimizing the gap between the ostensive and the performative routines is vital. At the holistic level, within crisis management response, the crisis management plan and its components form the ostensive routine, which becomes the script for the crisis team to follow. The script is ingrained into team member behaviour through continuous rehearsal, which can be described as the ongoing education, training and process validation that participants on the crisis team undergo in order to ensure that during a crisis, their performance is aligned with the script. That said, what has been observed time and again, is a deviation between the script, the rehearsals, and the actual performative routine. During an actual crisis issues are created when the gap between the performance and ostensive routine grows too large, or, following an acting analogy, where the actors forget what they have practiced in rehearsals and create their own script. During work in the food-manufacturing sector, this deviation has been observed repeatedly and most critically in the first 24 to 48 hours of a response, the period when it is arguably most important for the script to be followed and the correct routines applied.

Ecological economic theory and research consistently demonstrates the need for radical change in our approach to assuring global wellbeing. The theoretical imperative for sustainable development and required policy are well established, if subject to criticism. However, less clear is how this new paradigm can be ‘operationalized’. Employing ecological economics as the base for recasting supply chain management allows the development of a theory of sustainable supply chains, which in turn will facilitate the real world implementation of the ecological economic paradigm. We offer a theoretically informed synthesis is offered from which to develop empirical and simulation research of sustainable supply chains: an important lever in securing an ecologically sustainable future.

PurposeThis paper aims to offer a critique of corporate governance in China.Design/methodology/approachThe critique is based upon a literature review and secondary data sources.FindingsThe Chinese Government has made efforts to strengthen the effectiveness of corporate governance in state‐owned enterprises. However, existing research shows that some governance mechanisms that are effective in Western countries have no significant or negative impacts on firm performance in China. An apparent reason for this is the strong relationship between state‐owned enterprises and the government.Originality/valuePolicy implications are offered as a means to improve corporate governance in China.