Business as Usual

Transport is a major user of carbon-based fuels, and achievement of the targets set at the Kyoto Protocol and elsewhere means that the EU and national governments must reduce CO2 emissions in all sectors, including transport. This paper reports on a recently completed study for the UK government on the options available to meet a 60% CO2 reduction target by 2030 in the UK transport sector. The study follows a backcasting study approach, developing a business as usual baseline for transport emissions, and two alternative scenarios to 2030. Different policy measures are assessed and assembled into mutually supporting policy packages (PP). Although 2030 seems a long way ahead, action must be taken now if the targets for CO2 reduction are to be met. The achievement of a carbon-efficient transport future, combined with holding travel levels at present levels, is likely to be very difficult. A major transformation in the way transport and urban planning is carried out is required. As transport and urban planners, we need to think very differently in tackling the new environmental and liveability imperative.

It is clear that probabilistic risk assessment or probabilistic safety assessment is embedded in the safety culture of the nuclear power industry, worldwide. Risk assessment applications are in transition in the sense that the regulatory apparatus is not yet in place, at least in the United States of America (USA), to fully support a risk-based licensing process. There is progress on the regulatory front, but it is tedious and not without its frustrations. Currently, the strategy in the USA is a “risk-informed” approach that tends to be “business as usual”, but while you're at it, “do a risk assessment”. The result is added burden (and costs) at a time of increased competition in the power field as a result of deregulation. There is hope in that some steps are finally being taken to modify the regulations to allow risk assessment to be more of a part of the licensing process. For example, the regulations having to do with maintenance, plant changes, and technical specifications have been modified to allow insights from risk assessment to be part of the basis for licensing amendments. On the matter of standards there is strong support that is scientifically based and addresses such issues as health effects and environmental impacts. There appears to be less support for standards on such matters as definition of terms, methodology, and data requirements.

The paper addresses the conference themes - politics of planning and rules of the game - in a global context. It presents a case that globalization is changing planning cultures and that there is a need to "re-invent" planning for the 21 st century. Rapid urbanization and the urbanization of poverty fundamentally challenge many of the rules and routines of

Implicit in the decision process of corporate leaders is a central question: what and who is this business here for? Many subscribe to the belief that the primary goal of leadership is to maximize shareholder value.... but the shareholder-first approach that originated and prevails in the Anglo/US world has received heavy criticism from a number of well-regarded management researchers. ....the focus on short-term profits discourages long-term thinking, investing, and planning.... Respected thinkers offer another answer to the question about the purpose of a business: the firm should see itself as an interdependent part of a community that consists of multiple stakeholders whose interests are integral to business success.... in turn, this interdependency helps the firm be sustainable and resilient.

This case study is conducted within the context of the Theory of Constraints. The field research reported in this document contains information specific to the telecommunications industry. An examination of the history, organization design, problems and solutions for one telecommunications company are undertaken from the perspective of academic work in the Theory of Constraints. The information included in this document was developed through interviews with four senior managers including the President, the Chief Technology Officer, a Vice President and a department manager. Their responses were the basis of identifying problems and undesirable effects. The undesirable effects were diagramed in six UDE clouds dealing with the following issues: 1- unclear vision from management to employees; 2- supplier; 3- market; 4- the price and regulation environment; 5- production; and 6- bureaucracy. These undesirable effects were logically examined until a single cloud depicting the core confli...

An important question for human resource development (HRD) concerns how its practices may have contributed to the global financial crisis. Commentators have highlighted that HRD must take some of the blame. First, we consider whether HRD's traditional role of contributor through performance-based development interventions, may have facilitated questionable practices in organizations. Second, we reflect on whether HRD was an irrelevant spectator through being benign and impotent; rather than challenging the status quo in organizations. Third, we contemplate the protagonist role and argue that HRD practitioners pursued short-term performance-based wealth maximizing objectives with scant regard for the long-term organizational or societal impact. We conclude by considering how HRD scholars can engage tomorrow's business leaders in critical reflection and how HRD practitioners can pursue a strategic decoupling position which allows for challenging the status quo without alienating their professional status in the organization and ethical standing in practice.