In a recent post, Dr Cardow criticised Paula Bennett’s employment training programmes for unemployed beneficiaries. Given “the absence of employment opportunities that is at the core of the problem” he suggested the Minister for Social Welfare should “stop training people for employment and start teaching people how to turn themselves into their own bosses”. Such suggestions are not new. In fact, programmes designed to assist unemployment beneficiaries set up in business have been tried in many different countries. There are presently a series of state-sponsored ‘SEAPS’ (Self Employment Assistance Programmes) running in a number of US states, specifically for carefully selected workers recently made redundant, who exhibit...Read more
Paula Bennett has claimed that giving beneficiaries two weeks work in the census call centre is an indication of the success of her government policies in the welfare area. At the same time she also admitted there were not enough jobs to go...Read more
“The sky is falling”,” run to the hills”, “it must be another case of industrial disease” all sentiments heard while watching the inevitable fall of Mainzeal. This is the time when many will wring their hands and...Read more
In January this story featured in the Wall Street Journal. Entitled “Want to be CEO? What’s your BMI?” it tells of the ‘new’ requirement for Chief Executives to be slim, trim and ready for (business) warfare. It even...Read more
Recently Forbes magazine published its rankings of the best country in the world for ‘business’. New Zealand topped the list this year, moving up from second place in 2011. In constructing this ranking Forbes uses the following factors: Property...Read more
I teach a postgraduate course called Leading and Changing Organisations. One of the key parts of this course is to help the students understand how they can critically assess the many multitudes of books available that claim to have figured out...Read more
Disclaimer: I am not a current ANZ or National Bank customer! Recently ANZ announced plans to discontinue the National Bank brand. ANZ acquired The National Bank almost a decade ago and has been running the two brands as separate entities, but for...Read more
Is there an obesity bias in promotion decisions? We could have to conclude that, on balance, there probably is. Unfortunately this relates to society’s general negative attitude towards fat people – on all levels. It is commonly known...Read more
Knowing that healthy eating starts at home is not exactly a new idea. The article linked here draws attention to the ‘plight’ of overweight kids and makes suggestions as to how home life can be remodelled to make the ‘needed’...Read more
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