Servant

Abstract: 'A towering intellect ...powerful, always provocative.' Guardian 'A superb polemicist who combines fluency of language with a formidable intellect.' Observer 'Must be read by everyone concerned with public affairs.' Edward Said Necessary Illusions explodes the myth of an independent media, intent on uncovering the truth at any cost. Noam Chomsky demonstrates that, in practice, the media in the developed world serve the interests of state and corporate power -- despite protestations to the contrary. While individual journalists strive to abide by high standards of professionalism and integrity in their work, their paymasters -- the media corporations -- ultimately decide what we view, hear and read. Rigorously documented, Necessary Illusions continues Chomsky's celebrated tradition of profoundly insightful indictments of US foreign and domestic institutions and tears away the veneer of propaganda that portrays the media as the servant of free speech and democracy.

Abstract: Despite widespread adoption of servant leadership, we are only beginning to understand its true utility across multiple organizational levels. Our purpose was to test the relationship between personality, servant leadership, and critical follower and organizational outcomes. Using a social influence framework, we proposed that leader agreeableness and extraversion affect follower perceptions of servant leadership. In turn, servant leaders ignite a cycle of service by role-modeling servant behavior that is then mirrored through coworker helping behavior and high-quality customer service, as well as reciprocated through decreased withdrawal. Using a multilevel, multi-source model, we surveyed 224 stores of a U.S. retail organization, including 425 followers, 110 store managers, and 40 regional managers. Leader agreeableness was positively and extraversion was negatively related to servant leadership, which was associated with decreased follower turnover intentions and disengagement. At the group-level, service climate mediated the effects of servant leadership on follower turnover intentions, helping and sales behavior.

Abstract: Ideas about what makes a good teacher are important in thinking about educational reform, and have come into focus recently. These ideas are contested and open to change. The first part of this paper traces models of the good teacher in Australia from the colonial-era good servant, through an ideal of the autonomous scholar-teacher, to contemporary lists of teacher competencies. The second part looks more closely at the incoherent but insistent way the good teacher is now defined under neoliberal governance by teacher registration authorities. The third part of the paper makes proposals for a new understanding of good teachers: based on understanding the labour process and occupational dynamics of teaching, the intellectual structure of Education studies, and the overall logic of education itself.

Abstract: Although the relationship between elected officials and appointed executives has often been viewed as a struggle between master and servant - with disagreements as to which individuals occupy which role - this volume presents a comparison of city governments in 14 countries which reveals more interdependence and shared influence than conflict over control. The authors bring local government to the forefront, emphasizing the sophisticated level of city management in Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Their findings lead to a revision of the general view concerning the boundaries of public administration. The work illustrates in practical ways how democratic control of governmment and professional administration can coexist without undermining the logic or integrity of each other.