Review of Ho-fung Hung (ed.)’s China and the Transformation of Global Capitalism

In 2006, when the panel at the American Sociological Association that eventually gave rise to this volume took place, the world and China’s place within it seemed a slightly different place than it is today. Now, as most of the developed world pursues a largely-self inflicted crisis of austerity following the crisis of under-regulation, China’s forward progress towards a high-level of economic development seems less certain and the social stresses of transformation and increasing labour market agitation and protest threaten the stability and rule of the Communist Party.

Read the full review here.

Performance Assessment in the International Hotel Sector of Yangon, Myanmar

Announcing: Yin, Lay Su and John Walsh, “Performance Assessment in the International Hotel Sector of Yangon, Myanmar,” Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, Vol.5, No.5 (May, 2013), pp.282-90, available at: http://www.ifrnd.org/admin/jebs/66.pdf.

Abstract

Performance assessment has been a controversial subject in human resource management since its introduction; while managers can see the benefits of conducting such assessments (and how they can benefit both employers and employees), they rarely want to be the ones to conduct them because of the damage that ill-applied measurements can have on the motivation and morale of some employees. However, the practice is of particular importance in the hospitality and hotel sector, since success is so very dependent on the ability and willingness of members of staff at every level to satisfy customer demand. Consequently, performance assessment has been introduced into the hotel sector of Yangon, previously the capital and largest city of Myanmar (Burma). In doing so, it has been the intention to help employees to determine and map their own future career trajectories and to set boundaries for what might be achieved. Yet workers in Myanmar are unaccustomed to being asked their opinions and, given the longstanding societal and political conditions in the country, a number of employees are reluctant to provide full and frank answers to questions from superiors in the workplace. Drawing on a sample of 303 respondents from the hotel sector in Yangon, this paper reports on issues surrounding performance assessment and its impact in that sector.

Keywords: hotel, human resource management, Myanmar, performance assessment

 

Managerial Challenges of Infrastructure Development Projects in the New Myanmar

I am back from the 3rd International Conference on Management in Penang (http://www.internationalconference.com.my/icm/icm.htm), where I gave the eponymous paper. It went well, i thought. Here is the abstract:

Abstract

As Myanmar has entered the international realm through embracing its own form of democracy, the country has almost immediately become one of the most powerful magnets for inward investment in all of Asia. The numerous mineral resources, the apparently compliant, low-wage labour force with English language ability and the strategic location between India and China all make siren calls to the world’s investors and many have taken early positions in important and newly-opened industries. Prominent among these opportunities are those related to infrastructure: roads, ports, energy transmission systems and special economic zones are all vital areas for developing the country’s domestic markets and resources and, for what will be more important to a number of potential and actual investors, creating the linkages that will enable them to extract resources and products from the country to international markets where profits will be superior. Many foreign investors have, therefore, found themselves active in joint ventures with local partners and other arrangements as part of the effort to create the desired infrastructure projects. Yet these partnerships have in many cases been fraught with managerial peril: mercurial local partners, uncertain legal norms, the need to negotiate the removal of villagers from the path of new projects and political machinations have all been problematic. This paper explores a variety of case studies of infrastructure development in Myanmar with a view to intensifying the different managerial challenges that have been encountered and aims to indicate the ways these challenges might be tackled.

Keywords: infrastructure, management, Myanmar, special economic zones

The full paper appears on the proceedings CD; I’m not sure if the guys organising the conference will be interested in publishing it in one of their journals (http://www.globalresearch.com.my/journal/journal_management.htm). Let’s see how it goes; if not, I will tidy it up and submit it elsewhere.

Review of Clive Barker’s Abarat

I quite like Clive Barker as a writer and I enjoyed the Hellraiser films, although I have not read anything on which the series was based. Consequently, when I saw Abarat in the young adults section of the bookshop, I thought it would be good for my daughter, who is now into vampires and various other forms of fantasy. After all, Barker is British and since she picks up new phrases and expressions from what she reads, I’d rather it wasn’t all American. Unfortunately, however, she did not like the book and gave it back to me and so I have read it myself.

Read the full review here.

Review of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Legend of Sigrid and Gudrun

It is presumably the result of the great success of the film versions of The Lord of the Rings and now The Hobbit that has facilitated the publication of other works by the late JRR Tolkien. Several books of tales from Middle Earth have surfaced, redacted by the author’s son Christopher, including the rather startling Children of Hurin that I have reviewed elsewhere on this site.

Read the full review here.

Review of John Le Carre’s A Delicate Truth

It seems almost mandatory among reviewers discussing new work by John Le Carre to begin by mentioning his early career and the prominence of the Cold War and then suggesting that the old boy has never really recovered from the collapse of the Soviet system. This is, I think, unfair. People do not blame Shakespeare for writing The Tempest after Hamlet but instead celebrate both.

Read the full review here.

Review of Cormac McCarthy’s Suttree

I believe that, with Suttree, I have now read all of Cormac McCarthy’s wonderful novels and I wish I had enough time to read them all again, perhaps more than once, to have another chance to appreciate the intense use of language as much as the unfolding of the story and the life of the people in the environment that does so much to define them.

Read the full review here.

Workshop on Korean Trade and Investment in the Greater Mekong Subregion

Thanks to a grant from the Council of Korean Studies, the SIU Research Centre will be holding a Workshop on Korean Trade and Investment in the Greater Mekong Subregion on November 1st and 2nd. I hope to have speakers from all Mekong Region countries to cover state-level issues and also some thematic issues. I will issue a call for papers shortly – there is some funding for travel and accommodation in Bangkok. Do let me know if you are interested in attending or presenting a paper.

Review of Greg Bear’s City at the End of Time

This fascinating but somewhat elaborate story aims at nothing less than explaining the nature of the birth and death of the universe from a human perspective. From a far-distant future, a horrifying and tyrannical alien being, the Typhon, is destroying the physical universe by converting it into a different form or configuration of matter and energy that is described in human terms as ‘chaos.’

Read the full review here.

SIU Journal of Management, Vol.3, No.S1 (May, 2013).

A special supplementary issue of the SIU Journal of Management has now been published (http://ejournal.som.siu.ac.th). All papers may be freely read or downloaded from the website. Here is the table of contents:

CONTENTS

Special Supplement 1, May, 2013.
	Editor’s Introduction	5

Foreword to the research articles

Makha Khittasangka

7

RESEARCH ARTICLES

1.	Workforce Diversity for the Sustainable Economic   Development in the Mekong Sub-Region and Asia–Pacific from the Learning   Perspective Ta   Thi Hong Hanh	10
2.	Antecedents and Outcomes of Integrated Water Resources   Management in Community Conflicts Resolution of the Mekong Part I and Kok   Basins. Vicharn   Amarakul	26
3.	Social   Networks and Migration of People from the Southern Border Provinces of   Thailand to Work in Food Shops (Tom Yam Shops) in Malaysia Nisakorn   Klanarong, Sirirat Sinprajakpol & Suparat Pinsuwan	44
4.	Market   Segmentation of Thai Herbal Products: the Southern Thailand Market Sasiwemon Sukhabot	61
5.	Guidelines for Knowledge Dissemination   about Garbage Elimination and Water Treatment through Folk Media under the   Laem Pakbia Royal Project at Lablae District, Uttaradit Province Radee   Thanarak & Sirikran Yimprayat	73
6.	Human Resource Management of Small   Independent Hotels: A Case Study of Cha-am Beach, Phetchaburi, Thailand Rosamarin   Arunothaipipat	88
7.	A Study of Factors Influencing   Lubricant Purchases by Logistics, Mining and Construction Business   Entrepreneurs in the Three Lower-North Thai Provinces of Uttaradit,   Pitsanulok and Sukhothai Manee   Choo-Iead & Wattana Keawpoolpakorn	101
8.	A Study of Development Strategies for   OTOP in Chiang Rai Nongnout   Kanthachai	112
9.	Sufficiency Economy as a Human   Development for Economic, Social and Environmental Sustainability with   Emphasis on Ethnic Communities Makha   Khittasangka	123

BOOK REVIEWS

	Mediums, Monks, and Amulets: Thai Popular Buddhism Today by   Pattana Kitiarsa John   Walsh	150
	Secret Genocide: Voices of the   Karen of Burma by Daniel Pedersen John Walsh	154

 

CALL FOR PAPERS                                                           157

AUTHOR’S GUIDELINES                                                   159

ABOUT SHINAWATRA UNIVERSITY                                161

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD                                        164