Dilemmas and advances in corporate social responsibility in Brazil. The work of the Ethos Institute

This article discusses the development of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Brazil from the perspective of the Ethos Institute of Business and Social Responsibility. The Institute is a not‐for‐profit, non‐governmental organization, that has played a leading role in the Brazilian CSR effort. In Brazil, CSR initiatives have a long tradition of philanthropy, a consequence of the country's great social inequalities. The increased attention to corporate social responsibility has paralleled growing concern about sustainable development and the intensifying activities of pressure groups (consumers, customers, investors, NGOs, labour unions, the media, among others) that have been increasing since the 1990s as natural resources are progressively becoming exhausted, social tensions rising and environmental conditions deteriorating worldwide. This article identifies problems and obstacles to the growth of corporate social responsibility in Brazil, as well as advances and alternatives for CSR and towards creating conditions for the country to be internationally competitive and sustainable in the financial, social and environmental areas.     

BUILDING THE AGENDA FOR INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH IN WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT1

ABSTRACT: This paper pursues more specifically the recommendations of a recent National Research Council report recommending greater attention to research on institutions in the field of water resource management. The important challenge for the future in institutional research lies in going beyond the observation that institutions are important and in explaining instead how institutions actually affect management options and outcomes. It is possible to illuminate the relationships between institutional features and water management through comparative institutional research. This paper offers recommendations for studying water institutions in a comparative context, including methodological recommendations concerning approaches to comparative institutional research, and topics for comparative institutional research that appear especially fruitful at this time. The example of conjunctive management is used to illustrate the importance of institutional factors in water management, drawing to some extent on the authors’ recent experience with a comparative study of conjunctive management institutions.     

Harmonizing water management and social needs: a necessary condition for sustainable development. The case of Israel's coastal aquifer

This study focuses on the problem of most efficiently fulfilling the water requirements of society for sustainable water resources management. The goal is to coordinate effectively the social needs of the resident population with operational water resources management planning.The proposed approach consists of a pyramidal hierarchy of water resource management needs, similar to that suggested by psychologist Abraham Maslow for human social needs. The two pyramidal hierarchies can be simultaneously employed to delineate guidelines to synchronize planning for sustainable water resources development with the concerns and expectations of the resident population. In both hierarchies, higher level needs remain irrelevant and difficult to attain until lower level needs of the resident population have been fulfilled.Management planning measures employed with regard to Israel's coastal aquifer have been used to illustrate this approach. Observation of Israel's experience indicates markedly reduced effectiveness where such measures have failed to be properly synchronised with societal needs. Conversely, where hydrological management measures were successfully synchronized with societal concerns, increased efficiency towards attaining sustainable groundwater management was evident.     

Are two cynics better than one? Toward understanding effects of leader–follower (in‐)congruence in social cynicism

Prior research suggests that leaders' social cynicism can undermine important follower outcomes such as followers' motivation and performance. However, these studies have exclusively focused on leaders' social cynicism and neglected that followers' views on the social world might also influence the leadership process. On the basis of theories of social beliefs and person–supervisor fit, we offer an integrative perspective and predict that it is the congruence between leaders' and followers' social cynicism that shapes leadership dynamics. Data from 116 leader–follower dyads from a broad range of organizations and industries support our model: Polynomial regression and response surface analyses show significant congruence effects of leaders' and followers' social cynicism on followers' extra‐role behaviors and followers' proactive work behaviors. These positive effects of congruence on follower outcomes are transmitted by leader–member exchange quality. Finally, congruence effects are stronger when leaders' and followers' social cynicism is low rather than high. Overall, our study suggests that it is the correspondence between leaders' and followers' social cynicism that influences followers' leader–member exchange, extra‐role, and proactive behavior. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings for designing functional leader–follower dyads in organizations.     

高速公路桥头差异沉降综合处治对策

由于台背路堤和桥台两者形成差异沉降，桥头跳车成为普遍且复杂的问题，对这一特殊路堤病害的成功处治尚不多见。近年来．加筋土结构的柔性桥台开始应用于工程实践，这种结构有可能从根本上防止桥头跳车的产生。本文针对高速公路桥头路基易产生差异沉降这一普遍现象，从理论与施工的角度进行探讨，并结合京珠高速公路粤境南段工程建设的实际，介绍了防止桥头跳车不良影响而采取的技术处理措施。经实践检验，综合处治对策取得了成功。     

A Method for Constructing a Social Vulnerability Index: An Application to Hurricane Storm Surges in a Developed Country

An important goal of vulnerability assessment is to create an index of overall vulnerability from a suite of indicators. Constructing a vulnerability index raises several problems in the aggregation of these indicators, including the decision of assigning weights to them. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate a method of aggregating vulnerability indicators that results in a composite index of vulnerability, but that avoids the problems associated with assigning weights. The investigators apply a technique based on Pareto ranking to a complex, developed socioeconomic landscape exposed to storm surges associated with hurricanes. Indicators of social vulnerability to this hazard are developed and a principal components analysis is performed on proxies for these indicators. Overall social vulnerability is calculated by applying Pareto ranking to these principal components. The paper concludes that it is possible to construct an effective index of vulnerability without weighting the individual vulnerability indicators.     

连云港市环境与社会经济协调发展研究

将可持续发展指标作为环境与社会经济协调发展程度的研究指标体系 ,按照协调发展度的大小将环境与社会经济的协调发展状况划分为 3大类 1 0小类 30个基本类型。研究表明 ,连云港市协调发展度逐年提高 ,目前处于勉强协调发展类环境滞后型     

深基坑拉锚联合支护结构设计及工程应用

深基坑拉锚式支护结构由于其经济可靠而且施工快速简便．已经在许多深基坑工程得到了迅速推广应用。结合工程实例，通过分析工程场地周边环境与工程地质条件．经方案比较后，采用拉锚式支护方案，着重阐述了拉锚式支护方案设计与施工工艺。工程实践表明，该设计方案是可行且经济的，对场地狭小、周边环境复杂的大面积深基坑工程，拉锚式支护体系具有独特的优势。     

滑坡治理中预应力锚索格构梁受力分析

三峡工程库区巴东太矶头东滑坡是松散堆积体滑坡，采用格构锚固结构进行治理，格构梁按照Winkler弹性地基上的梁进行分析，并与三维格构锚固模拟的结果对比，对格构梁的设计提出建议，建议梁长与弹性特征λ满足lλ≥λ，间距l5λ＜π／2，同时采用较小间距的格构梁以及小吨位锚索，悬臂长度取0.3-0.5l2s,建议设计时弯矩乘以系数K=1.3.     

基于Bp网络的强夯加固软土地基的影响因素量化分析

本文以河流相软土为例,应用检验合格的Bp网络模型,对影响强夯加固软土地基效果的因素进行量化分析。得到了液性指数I_L、被加固土层厚度h、排水设计、施工工艺与加固效果之间定量的关系,对实现强夯加固软土地基的信息化施工具有一定的意义。